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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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All Episodes
Archives
Now displaying: 2016
Jun 28, 2016

Episode 123 “Cake and Burritos”

2:00

We’re Live! Josh is upset with Apple and hates change. EntreProgrammers discuss wireless headphones. John argues that new technology is forcing us to move forward.

11:20

Derick is impressed with the Apple Magic Track Pad. John mentions they need to start a new show doing tech reviews on their technology. 

14:30

John mentions that the Patreon was a success with 1500 pledges. John talks about how the Pateron is similar to a Kickstarter, and you need some momentum to make is work. 

20:00

Josh joking says they should open source Simple Programmer. John gives us a peak of the new Simple Programmer logo, and the runner up logos. 

27:00

John gets some mic technique instruction. Going back to tech talk for a minute. 

29:00

Derick is shares that his Watch Me Code team is growing, and working with a new video editor. Derick talks about planning work with Mark, the “marketing guy.” Derick is working on reorganizing the email content with Mark. 

35:00

The EntreProgrammers talk about linking others video content on their Youtube video channel, in order to get people hooked. Derick shares that he is a bit overwhelmed with hiring several people and working on the marketing material. 

40:00

Derick talks about helping create a workflow for his video editors, and making sure they understand how to adapted Derick’s video editing style. John talks about getting a system in place, then upping the content production. 

43:00

Josh shares how he likes to set up a  workflow with his VA. Derick wants to get to the point where he does not have to worried about the tasks that his VA doing for him. 

49:00 

Josh talks about working with VAs that are flaky or not coming through on projects. Josh shares the ideal qualities for a VA. 

53:00

John asks for feedback on a real estate course he is creating. John asks if he should be or not using the H.265 video encoding. Josh shares some news on the new Dropbox update. 

59:00

John talks about a passive income bundle which is the real estate videos he recorded in an afternoon. Josh talks about buying into John’s passive income course ideas. Josh says he is going to end up in jail because on this new real estate project. 

1:04:00

John talks about a video by JP a spiritual life coach, and having a bunch of laughs. Josh shares that he did something easy for work, that might have a big impact. Josh moves a button and is instantly a genius.  

1:13:00

Derick says that he got a new Watch Me Code customer. John suggests getting their addresses and write them a handwritten note, as a thank you.  The EntrePrgrammers talk about ways to collect their mailing address without being creepy. 

1:20:00

Josh mentions that they need to get paid for reporting bugs in DPD.  John is talking at the  California Code Camp.  John shares his new strategies for is talk, and wants to be more interactive with the audience.

1:26:00

Josh talks about platforms for webinars and his strategies for having a live event. John mentions doing a calendar invite in order to have people aware of the event. 

1:32:00

John shares more stats on his new health program. Josh is impress with his scientific findings on how fat molecules are converted into energy. John talks about still gaining muscle weight while in a calorie deficit. 

1:40:00

John talks about having some sweet goodies during this work out, diet program, and scientifically describes the process. We need a human achievable version of this workout and diet program. 

1:49:00

The EntreProgrammers discuss more diet and exercise. Josh mentions he want to try John’s diet and workout plan. John talks about the science of fasting. 

Thoughts for the Weeks

Derick - Don’t bite of more than you can chew

Josh - It’s easy to go looking for more, when you’re not using what you have. 

John - This too shall past..

Jun 21, 2016

Episode 122 “Veiny Bastard!”

2:00

We’re Live! Derick says he hired his first person on UpWork. Derick shares that he had to revamp the first posting of the job, with Josh’s help to get more people to apply for the job. 

5:00

John talks about the changes in UpWork’s contracts with their Freelancers. Josh talks about the changes in the amount of people that apply for the jobs posted, as well.  

10:00

Josh suggests to Derick to do an email blast to possibly find people in their audience, before using a freelance service to hire people. 

15:00

Derick is now going to be working with a developer/market who moved to Waco, in the same town where Derick lives.  Derick mentions a possible joint venture if things start pick up.

21:00

Derick shares his penthouse letter story with the team about a ink pen incident.  Derick shares that he found out he had a friend that had went to school with Ryan Deiss

27:40

Josh shares that he wrote some Java Script over the week, and work on their Simple Programmer stores. 

32:00

John gives an update that they hit just over a thousand dollars with people pledging of the Patreon launch. The EntreProgarmmers talk about the inner workings of the Patreon system. 

40:00

John talks about mindset and being able to overcome the societal limitations. John gives examples of the armless archer. “Figure out what it is, and use it!”

50:00

John talks about listening to Lest Brown, motivational speaker. John talks about being prepared to become whatever it is that they want at any given time. John says the people sometime don’t realize how important mindset is to the mastermind. 

57:00

John says he is doing a Simple Programmer redesign. Also some talk about tuning their children into young entrepreneurs and having them help with selling products for the business. 

1:00:00

Then EntreProgrammers talks about learning to design and taking idea from others. John shares that he is being recognize randomly by people around him.  

1:09:00

John talks about his Simple Programmer workout program, and dropped to a substantial low body fat. John talks about interviewing Dr. Testosterone, and discussing a workout program for developers. John talks about creating two different diet programmers called Simply Cut or Simple Shredded. 

1:15:00

John shares his ideas for creating a marketing program for the new Simple Programmer product. Derick thinks John should change or differentiate the names of the programs further. 

1:22:00

Josh says he will do the exercise and learn the science of the workout program. Josh gives pointers about the step by step changes one has to make throughout the training plan. 

1:30:00

Derick mentions he wants to be a guinea pig for the workout program and building good habits. Derick mentions he learns quick when he has to make drastic changes when it come to diet. Derick makes a good point about how the program will appeal to the common developer. 

1:40:00

John plans around shooting video for the exercise program after coming back from China. John, comes back talking about mindset and understanding specific results for the exercise program.

1:45:00

Chuck talks about getting back into the swing of things after a vacation in Oklahoma.  Chuck talks about hitting the newbie market, as a new product. 

1:50:00

Chuck talks about getting some ideas from another podcasters in area of sponsorship. Chuck mentions before hand, people were paying per quarter. But now he will be going to a per episode sponsorship  program.  Chuck is looking into a CRM for the quick email turnaround and sell podcast sponsorships. 

1:59:00

Chuck talks about the exposures and press kit number, to get the price of a sponsorship.

Thoughts of the Week 

Derick - Do the thing s that make you uncomfortable, or you will not grow…

Chuck -  Just get some time and turn it all off..

John - Subject yourself to that, that imposes on your life. 

Josh - You have a lot more to offer, then you realize.

Jun 14, 2016

Episode 121 “Pasty White…”

2:00

We’re Live!  Orangey John and Pasty Josh.  John talks share his sign up for a half marathon. 13.1 miles in just under 2 hours. “I just sign up yesterday!” Josh shares his knowledge on training for a marathon from his former client.

10:00

Derick talks about doing his webinar, telling a story, and missing his transition back to the topic. Derick will be posting his video to Youtube and several other videos will be free. Derick sounds like he had some success with his webinar, which then gave him more ideas for other projects. Derick mentions that only if you are registered or a member, the other supporting videos are behind the pay-wall for 250 dollars. 

16:00

Derick asks for help on creating a one-click link in Drip for a campaign he has created. Josh shares some how-tos, and other experience with campaigns. Josh shares how to do a Trigger Link. 

20:00

Josh talks about temple style or fill in the blank emails for ad copy. Derick talks about struggling with not making sales with the new subscription model. Derick asks which way to think about the issue, even if he is only getting smaller sales, verses the top tier subscriptions. John suggests a step-up offer for the subscription models. Derick says he is psychologically drained over the slow sales. 

30:00

John thinks the bundle sales are going to be great up sales in the future, and the membership are great for renewals. John suggests staying the course because the long term is what will make the revenue. Derick is asking what will have the income source in the next 4 months. Josh suggest ways to support the bundles with webinars. 

40:00

Derick talks about how the marketing aspect is the most confusing part of his business. Josh and Derick discuss the express JS project and marketing strategies. Josh says that Derick has maxed out what blogging has done for his marketing, and now he has to move on the other strategies, like webinars. 

50:00

Derick talks about how he meant a younger version of Josh, who just moved to Waco TX, where Derick lives currently. Derick ask if it is a good idea to collaborate with this young marketer/coder. Derick talks about maybe having this guy do the cataloging, and redoing previous work, and comparing. 

57:00

Derick think this is a great opportunity to work with this young coder/marketer. Derick thinks the universe drop this dude into Derick world. 

1:01:00

Josh shares that he is doing an email course on email courses… Josh says this is inspired by the Copy Hour. Josh says he is going to launch this course in September. Josh shares his ideas about build the avatar and building the lessons for his project. Josh says he is worried that he does not have enough content. 

1:11:00

John think that Josh’s project helps with acquiring referral base type projects, because this is a difficult field to break into. Josh mention doing a free webinar with a couple of guy who are doing online summits, interview professional marketers. Josh think this will help build his list for his upcoming project. 

1:18:00

John talks about the life span of things you are known for as a specialist or an authority figure. Derick thinks that Express JS is going to be the next popular code language. 

1:25:00

John shares another story about running, and getting people to do something they hate, if you have the right medal. Josh shares their product sales and conversation rate for Simple Programmer. Josh thinks they are getting people who they’ve gain trust with on this wave of sales. 

1:34:00

John talks more about that Patronage project and his plans. John talks about his Youtube and revenue. John is talking about creating more revenue with the patronage and getting rid of ads, and support from the members. 

1:42:00

Derick talks being able to getting one of his videos into JS Weekly, which up his Youtube subscribers.  John says he has moved his video production to 2 videos per day. Josh suggests to John to get the smart cells standing pad for his standing desk. 

1:47:00

John mentions he has over 20,000 words for his next book. John shares his “pomodori” techniques. John shares how to get shit done…with pomodori. John says his new book is design to grow with the book. 

1:55:00

Derick ask about how to do an email gate. Josh suggest using Thrive. John talks about an idea for collecting emails and opt-ins. John makes a great point of 3 things you should know about out-sourcing. 

Thoughts for the Week

John -  Whatever you are doing…make sure to have it scheduled if you want to be prolific. 

Derick - When is comes to your business, make sure you at least have a solid working knowledge for what you are going to out source, before you out source. 

Josh - Just because you are not committed to something, does not mean you are not committed.

Jun 7, 2016

Episode 120 “Crabs In A Bucket”

2:00

John is having some modem troubles and Derick is excited about his new couch. Derick talks about rediscovering some forgotten toys under an old couch. Derick talks about how an old subscriber had renew their subscription with Watch Me Code. Derick also share some update information on his refund plan.

7:00

EntreProgrammers discuss their refund tactics and how to go about using the trail window before getting a refund. Derick continues on about customers looking for a specific series on his Watch Me Code website. Derick talks about how feedback from his customers are giving him new ideas about products, bundles, and marketing strategies. 

11:00

Chuck mentions trying a walk through of the product for the customer. Derick talks about the community on Slack. Derick says that there are a few people joining slowly. Derick is still working on the marketing on the JS Jabber project, and is now see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

18:00

Derick talks about a story he is using for his marketing strategy. John mentions his desk is finally coming, but only in pieces. John asks for some advice for a patronage project for Simple Programmer. Josh asks what would be the cost for the patronage to get rid of ads, but provide the value without interruption from ads. 

28:00

Chuck asks if the project is worth the work involved. John talks about checking out others projects to see the possibilities. Chuck ask if John considered a membership rather then using patronage. Derick talks about how he rather have a once a month charge for the patronage. 

38:00

John talks more about his random bachelorette party encounters on his beach runs. Chuck shares that he lined up a new sponsor, and he is taking Josh’s advice on booking sponsorship base on the quarters. Chuck ask what they think about mid roll sponsorships. The EntreProgrammers talk about when they think Chuck should send out the invoice. 

47:00

Josh shares a Dan Kennedy strategy. Derick ask about a particular strategy for buying sponsorships. John makes a great point about doing a non refundable deposit, maybe a 20-30 percent deposit.  Chuck asks again about mid-roll sponsorships and getting conversions. Chuck shares a bit about the sponsorship show-clock on the podcasts. John talks about conversions on mid-roll sponsorships. 

1:00:00

Chuck talks about growing a following on podcast and emailing lists. Chuck also talks about getting his webinar stuff setup. But he needs help with the support stuff, but ask if he should have Mandy take care of that stuff.  Derick thinks this is a great opportunity for her to get experience with something new. 

1:05:00

Chuck mentions being introduce to Gale Laakmann McDowell, author of “Cracking The Coding Interview”.  Chuck is thinking that he wants to get her on-board for a webinar. Chuck talks about what Gales does and what the marketing company does for her. 

1:10:00

John ask how Chuck’s book is coming along. Chuck says he has a couple of chapters and is a rough state at this time. John mentions Chuck needs to find what appeals to Gale, because she already has great success with her book.

1:15:00

John says he has 11,000 words on his next book, and most are going to be blog posts. Josh says to watch out because his content is going to already be out before the book publishing. Derick recommends talking to a few people who have already done the blog post and self publishing. 

1:22:00

John talks about being on the up tick of the roller coaster ride of their sales. Josh explains his projects with sublime and sumo me. Josh shares more on his attempt to optimize his content and ads. John talks about the promotion with Dan Martell. Josh says he is not going to mess with SSL…

1:30:00

Chuck ask about blogging and where he should setup his blogs. Derick talks about his experience with splitting the sites up. Derick has 368 people signed for a webinar. 

1:45:00

John talks about pissing people off about ADHD on Reddit and getting a few unsubscribes.  Derick talks about limiting beliefs, and the reality of the things you can actually do. Chuck talks about what is fair and entitlement. 

Thoughts for the Week 

Derick - Stop saying I Can’t…

Chuck - Why do yo do what you do…

Josh - You don't know anything until you teach it

John - Before you say I can’t, check your effort level.

 

May 31, 2016

Episode 119 “Burn The Boats”

2:00

We’re Live! John says his office still does not have furniture. John mention he is going to China. also his book is being translated. Derick says to only drink bottled water.  John mentions that his book has exploded on Amazon Japan. 

8:30

Josh says they’ve hijack John’s book.   

10:30

Derick says he still want to punch Josh in the face. Derick shares his frustration for figuring out the marketing stuff, but instead writes code. “Holy Crap, I hate doing this…” Derick talks about may creating a teaser video for the new direction he is taking. 

14:30

Josh says least he is learning more about marketing if anything. On the positive side, he has not made any sales or subscriptions. But the individual bundle sales are picking up. Derick says he is still trying to figure out why people have not gravitated to the annual subscription sales. 

 19:00

Josh show us a stack of transcriptions. Derick talks about how the project has already taken over 40 hours. 

24:00

Josh talks about a Dan Martell project, and shares the details about his marketing strategy. But no real success. Josh mentions the list is everything are far as marketing to an audience. John mentions he has never seen an affiliate offer work. 

30:00

John talks about sharing a marketing list for commission to Josh. Josh and John talks about the time it takes and types of tasks to run a successful affiliate offer. Josh says he is never doing another affiliate offer, unless they have specific details inline.  John says that a white label strategy will work best.  

40:00

Josh talks about doing an email blast with John. Josh talks about the story behind the email of the 5 learning mistakes. Josh, again realizes his email marketing super powers. John says gaining 1500 people to your list, and have the product sales pay for itself is  a good strategy.

50:00

Josh talks able a one click video recorder Screencasstify . John share that he is pumping out tons of video.  John says that subscribers are growing, 26,000 and growing. 

55:00

Derick’s youtube channel is growing and subscribers are growing as well. As least one third the rate of John’s channel. Derick talks about repurposing some older video content. John talks about writing a new book, “The Complete Software Developer Career Guide.”  Derick mentions considering writing several smaller books. 

58:00

Derick talks about republishing a student’s content on his site, plus a screencast bundle for a “Getting Started Guide.” Derick thinks this will help him out tons. 

1:00:00

Derick mentions a new RabbitMQ blog,  coming out soon. Derick says he has several requests for an e-book and videos course. John talks about writing more, doing at least  a thousand words a day. John says he is the f”irst draft king,” with very little editing. John talks about maybe self publishing his new book, plus a kindle and audio version. 

1:08:00

Chuck talks about being a in a tight spot with paying people, because of sponsors being late on payment. Also maybe producing a webinar and a e-bok with videos. John talks about being “the squeaky wheel” and asking for payment from the sponsors. Chuck says his biggest expenses are paying Mandy and Hosting.  Derick agrees that he should bug the the sponsors about the money. 

1:17:00

John says Chuck has to change something or raise sponsorship prices in order to stay out trouble.  John says the greatest thing to do is to get to the point to where we do not to care about whats in the check book. Expenses less then Income.  Josh suggests doing the webinar before the book. 

1:23:00

Derick talks about his past process for releasing a book with pre-sales of chapters. John talks about burning the boats completely to the ground, or not doing the whole process at all. 

1:30:00

The EntreProgrammers give marketing advice to Chuck, and help plan a strategy for his webinars. John urges Chuck to put something on the schedule. “No revisions or edits”

1:39:00

Derick is just thinking poop…Derick has 320 people sign up for his webinar. EntreProgrammers talk about webinar technology and the “how tos" of conducting a webinar. 

1:49:00

Chuck ask about a specific format for a webinar. Josh gives some feedback on what he should do. Chuck talks about getting hung up on the numbers of sales on spots of the webinar. The EntreProgrammers talk about ways to market the webinar. 

1:57:00

John shares that last week he was gone because of a talk he had to do in D.C. Again, John mentions he loves doing talks without slides. July 11th, John was invite to speak again. John thinks he was under sold, he might have to raise his fees for talks. Maybe 10K on up? EntreProgrammer give feedback to John. 

2:00:00

John and the EntreProgrammers talk about and agree on 10K pre talk, until people say that it is to high. 

2:07:00

John gives an update and Diet and Exercise and possibly and new course. John has been run 7 miles and no rest days. This is a ‘willing to do whatever you can without steroids.’ John think this is going to be a good marketing point. 

2:12:00

John goes deeper into the body fat percentage and different work outs to achieve it. John starts to whisper…? “Is my wiener hanging out of my shorts..” John thinks that hitting a certain body fat percentage maybe a solid selling point for a new diet and exercise program. 

2:19:00

Derick wants to pitch Josh over the boat, and Chuck wants to do the same to Derick.

Thoughts  for the Week 

Derick - “Don’t look at the elephant just keep chewing”

Josh -  “Taste the elephant first…” 

Chuck -  “Figure stuff out and get rest…” 

John - “Small decision equal huge gains…”    

 

May 24, 2016

Episode 118 “Crapalytics”

2:00

And we’re live! Josh apparently is cracking the whip on Derick. Derick is doing the brunt work on researching for marketing and he i working on the persona or avatar for the course he is building. 

6:40

Derick mentions he has 254 plus people signed up the webinar launch. Derick hope to gain customers from the webinar. Derick is looking for a guess speaker for the webinar, so he can focus on the marketing. 

10:00

Derick says he wants to tie in the Watch Me Code projects into the webinar and continue the questions in for the products in the Slack channel. Derick mentions the webinar will be available on YouTube.

16:00

Chuck talks about how to understand an avatar for marketing purposes. Josh explains the demographics of an avatar and how to marketing to this particular type of person. 

22:00

Derick talks about how working on the marketing material such as emails are sharpening his marketing skills other areas. Like marketing for his new bundle.

26:00

Josh talks about how getting into ‘the work’ will trigger something for you to understand the actual experiences and pain points of your audience or customers. EntreProgrammers talk about the Myers Briggs Test.  Derick talks about how this help you understand your preferences and should not to be taken to seriously. 

30:00

Derick share a book he is reading by Alex Harms at: leanpub.com/littleguide. Derick shares that this will help understand empathy on a technical level. 

35:00

Josh helps Derick with the analytics for projected sales of the annual passes to Watch Me Code. Josh talks about maybe speaking with people who bought the all access pass and those who were on the fence about buying. Josh says that this would give Derick huge insight to the customers ideas about the product. 

46:00

Derick says he has to much to work on for the business and does not know where to start. Chuck talks about gaining more clarity on the project. Derick talks about working his ass off to get the marketing email right after a years worth of understanding the market. 

54:00

Derick talks about picking the right story to tell for a marketing strategy, but and things just don't fall together easily for him. Derick mentions having a difficult time figuring out what to do with the emails and creating marketing material. Derick says he has no time to create the marketing material.

1:02:00

Derick asks how he could find the balance to find customers in the next few weeks and also do research.  Josh shares what he thinks the process Derick should take for the Watch Me Code. Josh thinks that doing a webinar once a month could increase sales on the full access subscription. 

1:08:00

Chuck talks about the frustrations he has with creating his Rails Clips material, and getting overdue projects out of the way. Josh shares that Simple Programmers sales have finally picked up. 

1:12:00

Josh shares that he is doing a marketing project for Dan Martel. Josh talks about interviewing John, as he talks about failed attempts an an entrepreneur. 

1:17:00

Josh talks about doing an email via Java Code Geeks. Josh says that LeadPages has fail him again. Josh talks about writing over an thousand word email for the competition. 

1:24:00

Derick ask about the live chat system.  Josh mentions FreshDesk and Olark. EntreProgrammers discuss the types of chat system they could integrate on their sites. 

1:30:00

Josh talks about where the fall off was on the Simple Programmers Site. Derick shares that he might have to reverify that the registration page is working correctly. 

1:35:00

Chuck asks for some advice on paid traffic, and maybe using Facebook for the traffic. Josh talks a how paid traffic works and that you have to spend a lot over time for an ROI. Josh does not think it is time worry about this project. 

1:45:00

Josh says Chuck should focus on emails and growth instead. 

Thoughts of the Week

Chuck -  Keep your head above water!

 

May 17, 2016

Episode 117 “Its Just Atoms!”

2:00

We’re Live! John talks about trying to write a thousand words a day. Josh shares his daily writing strategy to get content or emails logged. Josh shares that he uses the Strides app to help him track his daily habits. John talks about going to back to the KabanFlow for daily tasks. 

9:00

Josh shares how he has reached 2 to 3 thousand words a day. Josh talks about experimenting with creating video, and how he has to plan the video ahead of time rather than creating it “on the fly.” John talks about editing verses getting comfortable with creating on the fly. Josh shows new his selfie stick for video production. 

16:00

Chuck shares his A/V gear and ideas  on how he records video. Josh and John disagree with the quality of bluetooth, in regards to Apple getting rid of headphone jack. 

19:00

Chuck talks about his experience with bluetooth headsets. John and Derick talk about offending people intentional and unintentional. Chuck mentions we need to have common sense about these situations. 

27:00

John says that mental energy expenditure is somewhat equal to physical energy expenditure. So stay off Facebook first thing in the morning. Chuck talks about feeling like crap about not meeting a goal and how that had a huge mental tax on him. 

33:00

Derick shows off is Star Trek Data t-shirt. Josh talks about making another attempt with Google AdWords. Josh talks about how Google is getting beat up by Facebook as far as marketing strategies. Josh talks about being flagged by Google again.  Josh talks about how someone reaffirmed the usage of emails contact lists and pop-ups. 

42:00

John and Josh discuss their opt-in form and formula to get their audience to buy.   John talks about the bounce rate from the home page, and those who ‘stick around’ the website. 

50:00

Here is more talk on metrics on the websites and conversion rates. John talks about trying different strategies with changing the pop-ups and using retargeting pixels. Josh talks about how Google and Facebook could ban you with the use one pop-up in this kind of situation. Josh talks about his idea on how to use retargeting pixels. 

1:00:00

Josh talks more about crossing the lines and getting banned from Google. Derick talks about changing to a standard pop-up and not talking about hating ad blockers. John talks about his dislike for display ads. 

1:09:00

Josh says display ads are the tail end of the 80/20 curve. Josh talks about how they need a particular feature in Thrive. John talks about when they could maximize on the pop-ups.   John talks about the low traffic from Hacker News and Reddit. 

1:19:00

Josh mentions their business was on fire or how sales are tanking. Josh has been doing reviews of everything trying to find a solution. Josh talks about how a perfect storm hit with five different issues happening a once. But they fixed it and turn things around, but only for a day or two. Josh is still puzzled.  Chuck talks about how he is getting and influx of traffic at Dev Chat TV. 

1:28:00

Chuck talks about failing on delivering products on several projects. Chuck shares that he may have to reimburse 2k for an undelivered project. EntreProgrammers talk about how Chuck should repay the money on move on. 

1:32:00

John talks about  how he is still waiting on the decorator to detail his home. John talks about ordering a new stand up desk with AI.

1:38:00

Derick talks about getting 3 subscribers at full price, one bundle sale, and nothing sense then. So a bit of a downturn. Derick is not exactly sure what pieces he needs to work on the turn things around. Derick says he needs one subscriber a month to make is monthly income. 

1:42:00

John suggest that Derick should go to Twitter. Derick is not sure where his sales are coming from. Josh says that foot or cold traffic is a possibility. Derick has just hired Josh to help fix the sales funnel or some issues on the sales page. Josh says he may just need a ‘guarantee’ on the check-out page. 

1:51:00

On a positive note Derick’s YouTube channel is growing.

Thoughts of the Week

John - It’s just atoms! 

Josh - The ups and downs do not go away…its apart of the game. 

Derick -  Understand yourself and take care of yourself.   

Chuck - No matter how deep in the well your are, you can still find your way out. 

May 10, 2016

Episode 116 “Lets Fight for Bacon!” 

2:00

Derick says his business is burning to the ground. Chuck mentions he has lost one of his helpers.  Chuck is cancelling React Remote Conf. and shuffling the schedules around to make things work. Chuck talks about a bunch of challenges he is facing for the week and is very tried. Chuck shares that his son is facing some issues at school. 

10:00

John talks about how this situation looks like a quadrant 2 for Chuck. John shares how he could regain bandwidth to get things taken care for his business and home.  Chuck thinks that part of the issues with his flaky help, might be because of timezones. 

15:00

Chuck says he wants to do a Founders Retreat, base off of Sherry Walling’s book. On the up side, Chuck did a meet up using an app to coordinate the meet up. John thinks that Chuck need to simplify, and focus on the main things such as the podcasts and the remote conferences. 

24:00

The EntreProgrammers discuss the things that Chuck needs to focus on and simplify.  Derick mentions that he needs to take care of himself before he can talk care of important things. 

28:00

John mentions the talk he did an Evolve. John shares the core points of his talk. John mentions that he is now going to do talks without slides. John talks about his experience at the Xamarin Evolve 2016. 

30:00

John mentions that Trump has taught them to polarize his followers. John mentions that his YouTube subscribers has reached 24,000 plus. John talks about being authentic and unfiltered to his audience. 

40:00

Derick thinks this is a dangerous path because its getting away from the main message. John talks about how you have to have an enemy of sorts, or those who tell your you can’t achieve. John shares more about the message of Simple Programmer. 

55:00

Derick makes good point about introducing nuance as you are arguing.  Chuck talks about understanding the shared vision and knowing what they are fighting for. Beating the horse to dead…

1:04:00

 Chuck makes a comparison to the diversity in the forums of his company or projects. John says screw it, I’m doing what I want to do.

1:15:00

Derick mentions that he really likes the material on Failure at Micro Conf. Success is build on failure. The EntreProgrammers continue to discuss growth upon failure.  Derick is running through the ideas he is working to get to his ultimate goal. 

1:24:00

Derick knows that even while he is scared, he is going to be able to raise the bar to a new standard for his business. 

1:27:00

Chuck leaves. Josh talks about how he may have something no one else is doing, as far as email courses. Josh says this could build a revenue machine. Josh talks about his course plans. 

1:34:00

Josh talks about doing the email for Derick’s business as a practice and test. Derick is now a certified spammer according to Drip. Derick talks about how a company that maybe joining the Watch Me Code subscription at the annual price. 

1:41:00

Derick is excited to rework the email with Josh’s help. Derick mention a possible June launch for the new project. 

1:48:00

Josh talks about modeling Dan Martell’s ideas for an email. Josh talks about his VA has disappeared on him, so he is posting a new job on UpWork. Josh says he is going to adopted the “Hire slow and fire fast,” practice. 

2:00:00

John mentions how hiring from different parts of the world, that people have a particular type of work ethic. Josh shares some analytics form Simple Programmers sales page.    

2:15:00

Josh talks about how Simple Programmers’ pop-ups change peoples lives. 

Thoughts of the Week

John - Focus on Growth

Derick  - Find the thing that you are fight for…

Josh - When stuck on something….You’re missing something you need.

May 3, 2016

Episode 115 “Pike or Pipe?”

2:00

No John today! 

4:00

Chuck mentions that he has been doing WordPress development allweek. Chuck talks about plans for sponsorships and logisticaltasks. He is going to ignore all the advice from his mastermindgroups.  Chuck talks about the decision he has made with Mandymanaging the podcasts.

13:30 

Josh thinks Chuck should have Mandy document steps just in case.Chuck says he wants to outline expectations for social media andgrowing the audience. Josh asks how he is defining his role. Chucksays has change his title to CEO and handling businessrelationships. 

19:00

Chuck says he is going to do a kickstarter in June. Chuckmentions that he is the public face of Dev Chat TV, and that is thevalue he brings to sourcing business to Mandy. Chuck is thevitamins!

27:00

Chuck ask if he should get permission to monetize on the videosfrom the conferences he holds. Josh mentions how some people chargethe same prices on videos as the price to hold theconference. 

31:00

Chuck talks about doing a Slack channel for the conferencescoming up. Derick says to do a private channel for each remoteconference.  Chuck ask if he should use the free Slack for allthese remote conferences? The EntreProgrammers talk about the tiersthat Slack offers, and how the public uses it. Chuck talks aboutprivate add-ons. 

40:00

EntreProgrammers talk about doing taxes and paying estimatequarterly taxes. EntreProgrammers discuss finances since they havea firm footing in entrepreneurship.  

53:00

Derick is about to flip the switch to annual subscriptions for$350 and drop the monthly subscription.  Derick says he isvery nervous. Derick talks about the climbing views on his Watch MeCode videos. 

1:04:00

Josh mentions that getting Youtube coaching on lead magnets.Josh ask how to get an OPML file for podcasts.  Josh talksabout the traffic to the Simple Programmer sales pages, and emailconversations. Josh says he might rewrite the emailpitch. 

1:15:00

Josh is going to do an Ultimate Podcast List, but wants somedirection. Chuck says he should give specifics on how to do it onthe iTunes app and other players. Josh says he has decided to mergehis Sublime content with Simple Programmer. He is going to givepeople a chance to opt out if they don’t want the content. Joshdoesn’t know what to do with his Sublime twitter account. Dericksays to pin it to the new location. 

1:22:00

Josh has decided to make a product about email courses.  Hemay do a kickstarter for the project, not sure yet. Josh says hewill use it as a list building tool and sell in for 97 bucks. Joshmentions the people he can interview for bonus material. This isgoing to be a pitch similar to the work he done for “The 10 Step ofHow to Market Yourself” course. Josh realize that a project likethis is a great way to grow his email list. 

1:45:00

Josh talks about being invited to a webinar with Perry M. Joshtalks about the questions for the webinar audience.  

1:50:00

Derick mentions working on Watch Me Code stuff as they wererecording the podcast. Derick talks more about the new Watch MeCode changes. Josh suggests a joint venture idea to Derick. 

Thoughts ofthe Week!

Derick - Raise your prices.

Josh - You need a unique sellingproposition

Chuck - Simplify, and what you can’t simplify,automate!

Apr 26, 2016

Episode 114 “Burn Your Business To The Ground”

2:00

EntreProgrammers are joined by Adrian Rosebrock from pyimagesearch. Derick asks Adrian how he was able to make his kickstarter campaign successful. Adrian explains what his blog and business are about. 

6:00

Adrian explains that the first two days are early signs of the success of your campaign. Adrian mentions he aimed to raise just below the full funding. Adrian shares how to get funded faster, as far as providing tons of value.  Adrian talks about reverse engineering the campaign to reach his funding goal. 

10:30

Derick ask what was the criteria and the goals. Adrian talks about the early bird backers and the different tiers pricing. 

12:25

Josh asked how the 25 dollar tier worked for the subscription. Adrian continues with a launch plan and email.

16:30

Chuck talks a bit about the past kickstarter he did, and ask if a previous semi- failed kickstarter would hurt future campaigns. Derick talk 

19:00

Derick ask about validation and pricing of the tiers. Adrian explains the tier pricing. Adrian talks about advertising and creating validation. Adrian talks about reaching out to your list and do some researching before jumping into a kickstarter campaign. 

24:00

Derick mentions he might be interested in doing a kickstarter in the near future, for additional work. Derick talks about his plans for the campaign.  Adrian shares more about tactics for validation from your audience. 

30:00

Derick shares his ideas with the e-book.  Chuck ask what Adrian’s other marketing his has done before the kickstarter. 

34:00

Chuck shares that his ebook, along with a course would make a lot of sense. This leads Chuck to thinking about doing a kickstarter campaign as well. EntreProgrammers and Adrian discuss annoying emails.

44:29

John talks about testing his confidence on the beach. Based on what people were asking about when he speaks of confidence. John talks about getting an email from an organization call women in tech.

50:00

Chuck ask about implementing video along with a kickstarter campiagn. Chuck wants to know how important this type of media is to the platform.   John talks about being authentic and loose in front of the video camera.

1:00:00

Derick mentions that he just got his Slack channel started and has a few people on the channel. Derick shared his short story to get people on the Slack channel. Derick says he is still manually getting people on Slack. Derick explains why he chose Slack for a forum type platform. 

1:09:00

Derick says he wants to some type of automated system to notify people about engagement in Slack. Derick shares his ideas on what the official cut off will be for the Slack channel.

1:15:00

Chuck talks about using MemberPress. Derick talks about killing his monthly subscription on May 1st and only go to the annual model. Derick talks about matching the value proposition, to the price, is a big job as he make the changes. 

1:23:00

John mentions that it is good that Derick has a date set for implementing all the changes. John mentions that they hit a new milestone with product sales. Over 10K! Josh talks about where the sales are coming from as far as the funnels. Josh talks about issues with paragraph space in Thrive. 

 1:30:00

John mentions that Josh’s copy is doing great for the “10 Steps Course…” Derick mentions that his evergreen funnel is still doing great for the the RabbitMQ bundle. 

1:39:00

Josh talks about his Sublime list. Derick ask why he has not sold it to Wes. Josh mentions that it is costing him 500 dollars a month to keep in running. Josh look into how many people are actually opening the sublime emails. Josh talks about maybe doing some small projects or products. 

1:46:00

John says to drop the list in the the Panko Machine to hit milestone one. EntreProgarmmers suggests that Josh should get rid of the Sublime list. Josh is not comfortable with giving the sublime list to Simple Programmer, because he thinks it’s spamming. John suggests sending an email out to tell his list that he is now a partner to Simple Programmer, so it is not spamming. 

1:58:00

Adrian agrees the that dropping the list into another campaign might get Simple Programmer black listed. Also, he should only worry about getting to the 49 percent ownership of Simple Programmer.  Josh has a lot of thinking to do about what to do with the list. 

2:07:00

Chuck talks about the Freelancer episode 150, and how he and Mandy had a conversations on air about their work contract. Chuck might now pay her a fix rate to take on more responsibility.  The Entreprogarmmers have questions about the involvement in the hiring process for projects in his business. 

2:15:00

John suggests to Chuck to start from scratch at see what he needs and does not need in his business. The EntreProgrammers talk about ways to help Chuck sort out the work responsibility with Mandy. 

Thoughts for the Week

Derick - Some times you need to get that other perspective. 

Josh - Is this something you want to be doing in five years

John -  You are never done! 

Adrian - Set traumatic life changing goals.

Apr 19, 2016

Episode 113 “Expert Sex Change Host”

2:00

Derick and Josh plan an 8 hours podcast episode since Chuck and John are out. Derick shares his expertise on gaming consoles, shelf life, and his preferences.

6:20

Josh mentions he has been working long hours on the Simple Programmer sales page with eleven thousand words in the bag. Josh thinks he can hack the content down to eight thousand words soon. 

10:00

Josh shares his strategy for writing the sales page and searching through old material for Simple Programmer. Josh goes into detail for writing the lead and the rest of the email sequence for the courses. 

14:00

Josh shared that he was home schooled, so deadlines are kind of blurred. But he is trying to make his deadline for John’s content. Josh mentions he did not have any coaching student today. 

16:00

Josh mentions he gave the tasks of getting testimonials to John and Rodrigo. Josh shares a recent testimonial for a follower of Simple Programmer. Josh says they are reacting quick with the testimonials and contacting the customers. Josh mention that they are not changing the course for How To Market Yourself course.

21:00

Derick asks how to create an email that acknowledges your audience’s pain points, but still provides value, even thought you’re digging into a wound. Josh explains starting with a strategic story. 

25:00

Josh talks about how creating emails for a blogs, means doing tons of research. Josh says to “Giveaway the what, and sell the how.” 

30:00

Josh goes into the how to’s of AdWords using the Wright Brothers as an example.  Josh talks about the past examples of John’s trials of developing and learning to play guitar. 

34:00

Derick says he has plenty of crazy stories to implement into his email sequence. Josh mentions the power of telling story as apart of marketing.  

38:00

Josh talks about how he feels when he writes as a professional. Josh mentions he feels like there is a belt tightening around his chest as he is doing work because of all the deadlines. 

41:00

Derick talks about getting the motivation to write a blog, and how he trained himself to write his blog content. Josh talks about the techniques for writing for a paper and for school. Josh and Derick agree on reaching exhaustion when writing and creating email content. 

47:00

Josh talks about switching their site to another digital ocean site with snappier website loads. Faster then CloudFlare. Josh talks about the trials of the ingratiation and updates to WordPress. Josh talks about paying for some YouTube coaching. 

54:00

Derick shares that his YouTube subscriber numbers are growth with tons of views. Derick talks about all the organizing he is doing, and trying to create landing pages, a Slack channel, and an automated way to invite new subscribers.

1:03:00

Derick is inviting his email list to create a massive Watch Me Code Slack channel. Derick shares how he is setting up his Watch Me Code Slack channel as far as things the members can and can not do. 

1:06:00

Derick talks about putting out fires with his discount code issues again. Derick talks about changing the entire marketing material on his sites, but first he wants to build the community first.

1:13:00

Derick says he want the market base around the bundles, but the all access pass allows you the extras and the community on Slack. Derick knows he may get some angry customers, but he still wants to experiment for 2 months. 

1:17:00

Josh mentions to watch out for the month of June, things get kind of weird during this month. Derick mentions that his plan is counter intuitive, but the plan looks like a successful one. 

1:20:00

Derick talks about building content for the long term, beside going into React and Redux which might have a shelf life for a couple of months. Derick mentions that RabbitMQ in on the uptick of growth, but is linear. Derick also is still selling his RabbitMQ ebook on LeanPub. 

1:28:00

Derick talks about how the EntreProgrammers convinced him to go to the subscription model, which has monthly recurring revenue. Josh makes a correlation of how the market changes, and how Derick’s subscription business might be experiencing a shift in the market as well. 

1:33:00

Derick shares a bit with the perception of value. Derick and Josh talks about buy domain names…

Thoughts of the Week!

Derick - Tell a good story! 

Josh -  Show up and be consistent.

Apr 12, 2016

Episode 112 “Derick Favored Ice Cream” 

2:00

And we’re live! Derick says he is going to raise his prices on Watch Me Code. Derick talks about getting some ideas from the guys at egghead.io. Derick wants to experiment with annual subscriptions and maybe stop the monthly subscriptions. Derick get ideas to possibly try a 6 month or quarterly type subscriptions if the annual model does not work out. 

9:00

John suggest doing an annual plan with a shorter term model. Josh asks about the turn rate. Derick says he has a 10% turn rate. Derick thinks at least half dozen people are signed up for the entire year. According to the turn rate, the annual plan makes sense for Derick subscriptions. Derick thinks this is going to change the overall message to the corporate organization who pay for their employee’s subscriptions.  

16:30

Josh suggest outlining a ‘battle plan,’ so the EntreProgrammers can help him keep on track. Derick says he wants to try this plan for 2 months, which is fair enough to lose sales for 2 months until things pickup on the new model. Derick plans to create some special video content for the on-boarding of new signups. 

23:00

John is concerned about not having a monthly plan. Chuck thinks he should have a baseline for sure. John thinks that $15 verses $50 means those who are willing to pay more are serious about the subscription. Josh suggest a lifetime subscription at $997. 

33:00

Josh says the 3-4 month customer lifetime is normal for this kind of site, and increasing that is difficult. Josh thinks  the revenue will let you know which model or models to go with. John suggests a type of community forum as apart of the new plan. Derick thinks using a Slack channel or using a Facebook group. 

41:00

Derick say he needs to go back to PayPal integration in Drip, and creating an automated system to invite people to Slack when they signup. 

47:00

John says he is into the bookkeeping or digging deep into his bookkeeping. John says he is following what his current bookkeeper is doing. John mentions he wants to switch to a cash base accounting. John thinks this will streamline the bookkeeping system. 

1:04:00

Chuck talks about the numbers in his bookkeeping. Chuck thinks he may have to ask his bookkeeper some questions. John says it is important if things are categorized to track what is making the revenue.  The EntreProgrammers talk about how to check on bookkeeping and understanding how how numbers are defined. Chuck talks about having to let go of one of his Rails developer.

1:15:00

Chuck talks about his experiment with WordPress and building out a site. Chuck mentions he got more done with his WordPress site this past week. Derick mentions that EntreProgrammers no longer have Nird as a sponsor.  

1:23:00

Derick plugs the book “Death by Meeting” by Patrick Lencioni.  The EntreProgrammers talk about their experience at Micro Conf. and being recognized by tons of fans.  

1:30:00

Derick shares a story about trying to get into the Ghost Bar with John. “What happens in Vegas gets broadcast on Youtube.”

1:38:00

John mentions doing a talk at Micro Conf., especially about 401k and real estate. Chuck ask what was one of the biggest take aways after attending Micro Conf. Chuck talks about his conversation with Kai Davis and his key take aways. Derick talks about putting names to faces  and finally meeting Rob Walling, and his takeaways for Micro Conf. John talks about not really have a list of things, but making tons of connections. Josh mentions that he is still not in the spot to where the situations apply to him at this in his business.

1:50:00

Josh thinks that the Life Style business idea is a cope out and explains why. EntreProgrammers discuss a what a competitor is on a smaller scale. John says it’s hard to create 500 dollars of passive income, but once you start creating 3000 dollars of passive income, its not hard to create 10,000 dollars thereafter. 

Thoughts for the Week

Derick -  Stop making excuses…and get your product out the door. 

John - Always face the truth.

Josh -  Get to know your customers 

Chuck -  Get comfortable being Uncomfortable….

 

Apr 5, 2016

Episode 111 “Retreat in Las Vegas”

The EntreProgrammers meet in Las Vegas for Micro Conf. 

7:00

Derick shares that he may have found a VA from Spain. Derick is setting up test projects for the hiring criteria. 

9:00

Derick talks about his ideas for doing a Periscope weekly as apart of his content. 

11:00

EntreProgrammers discuss video production for their content materials. 

17:00

John talks about the advertisements and monetization on their Youtube channel. John further talks about his Youtube strategy. 

22:00 

Chuck talks about pain points your audience is experiencing in order to get more options. Josh talks about hiring someone to help with advertising on YouTube. Josh talks about finding a clear lead magnet to help Derick’s content. 

28:00

Derick asks if he should pay someone to do the banner art for Youtube. Chuck says it would help, but since he already has art for websites he should repurpose the graphics. Derick thinks he really should use his stick figures in his videos ideas. . 

33:00

John mention VIDIQ to looking for rankings and statistics. Derick talks about curating content on his site. Josh talks about YouTube ad policies and barriers to entry. 

36:00

John talks about hiring a linux guy for Simple Programmer. John talks about how he hired 5 people to do work on the backups systems of Simple Programmer. John mentions he hired based on performance an communication, because all application were excellent. 

44:00

Chuck is talking about having Mandy manage a team. Chuck is asking if it worth making Mandy an actual employee, because of the hours she is working according to law. Chuck asks what is the criteria for building out a team. Derick makes a good point that it depends on how he likes to work. 

52:00

The EntreProgrammers tell Chuck to do a one-off project and hire severals freelancers to do the same job. Chuck says he needs to free up Mandy for other important jobs. Derick asks what kind of test he needs to present to hire for a editing job.

1:04:00

The EntreProgrammers discuss the task and cost to do video production. This job may be content management as well. 

1:12:00

Chuck talks about one off projects and using a his regular person to do the job. Chuck is trying to figure out exactly who manages what projects on a video, or transcripts, and other projects as far as developing. 

1:20:00

EntreProgrammers talks about automating their business to work without them having to be present. Chuck and Derick feel like they are getting to the point that they don't have the time for creative projects. Finding key people is important at this point. 

1:26:00

Derick mentions it took him three years to publish his e-book and get concrete feedback. John talks about how businesses acquire technical debt. Derick say this is how businesses grow. 

1:31:00

Chuck mentions possibly hiring someone in connection with his current team members. Chuck is thinking about how to do hiring and how to divide up the tasks. Derick mentions he knows that he should’ve been thinking about this kind of stuff a long time ago, as far as hiring a  good team. 

1:42:00

Chuck ask if John and his team are paying for Slack. John says no! Chuck finds that basecamp might be a good tool for his team, to keep track that the project is done. 

Thoughts for the Week!

Derick -  It is really hard to hire the right person then it is to hire for technical skill. You are not going to get good at it if you don’t do it!

Chuck -  Burn Out.

John - Never lose the capacity for good things..

Mar 29, 2016

EntreProgrammers Episode 110

“We Need You To Caucus”

3:20

We’re live! John come to us from his new home in San Diego. John mentions he is enjoying all near by shops, gyms, and beach. John mentions he has hired an interior decorator to help design his home.

15:00

Chuck mentions that most people he knows don’t pay people to move their stuff. Mormons give a helping hand when you move.

16:52

John talks about he meant an interior designer who also went to the Traffic & Conversion Summit.

19:45

Chuck had to postpone the Ruby On Rails Conference, because he was lacking some speakers. Chuck talks about the craze over React. Chuck mentions he is a bit worried about iOS Remote Cont., he mention he needs speakers to help sell the conference. 

23:45

Josh says the conference should be application based for speakers to apply for a speaking slot. John mentions that Chuck should charge for an application fee. 

28:00

Chuck talks about the discussion of who is to speak at Ruby Rogues. Also, on losing a panelist on the podcast. Chuck talks about race inclinations and controversy within the developer groups he is working with.

37:00

John talks about what true diversity is really about. Chuck talks more about when he first started the show, and how diverse the group by ethnicity, social status, gender and sexual orientation. 

40:00 

John talks about being on the right path is when you are trying to make something awesome. 

47:00

John mention he is actually going to vote this time around. John says he enjoys entertainment value in politics. Practically, he does not care… “Unless you have a real impact…you don’t have a real impact.”

53:00

Chuck is thinking about putting up a landing page for Get A Coder Job course, and needs to decide if that is a good idea to do so. Josh gives some ideas about themes in Thrive Content Builder for WordPress. Josh talks about how it takes 8 hours of playing with Thrive to make things work. 

58:00

Chuck talks about having to closeout a business bank account. Chuck starts writing his book on orange sticky notes.

1:10:00

Josh says he is interested in creating a course on “Get Your First Job.” A type of course geared to those in developing. Chuck thinks there is a synergy with all the Simple Programmer Products. Chuck talks about the typical steps of those who are looking for a job and don't have experience. This courses would cover the dos and don’ts. 

1:16:00

John talks about how to target a particular audience and tailoring the content accordingly, but also being able the reformulate and reuse the content for another audience. Josh talks about catching people at the right time.

1:23:00

Josh and Chuck talks about the “HOW TO” course ideas. Chuck ask if this should be under the Dev Chat TV stuff. 

1:27:00

Josh mentions his recent email screw up. John talks about the DPD coupon thingy.

1:38:00

Josh shares the leads that he is going to use of for the next course for Simple Programmer. Josh talks about the pain points he is going to hit on to get people’s attention. 

1:42:00

John mentions he is gotten better at hiring people. John mentions a snappy website, and is willing to switch to this 10 dollar service or hire for this service. John shares how these people he is hiring are going to be tested.

1:52:00

Chuck talks about a recent hire for his bookkeeping. Chuck talks about the details of the interview process. John talks about learning his current bookkeepers process and teach someone else on UpWork to take over. 

1:56:00

Josh talks about running ads on YouTube, and his process to get people on an email list. 

2:03:00

Josh talks about getting targeted by Tai Lopez’s ads. Josh speaks more on figuring out how to get traffic on YouTube to the Simple Programmer channel. 

Thoughts for the Week!

Chuck - Things are not always as bad as the seem at the time. 

John - Don’t let things….drag you down. 

Josh -  Slow down.

Mar 22, 2016

Episode 109 “Screencast Leaf?”

3:15

Derick shares he is getting a new Android phone. 

6:15 

Josh is thinking about getting his AdWords account unbanned. Josh does some research and is talking to a guy who could help with his AdWords account, and maybe trade services for the reinstatement. Derick thinks it isn’t a good trade because of the high cost.

12:00

John suggests to trade services by doing a consultation and picking his brain to learn how he get Adwords unbanned. Also, John suggests writing copy for him for trade.

15:00

John is having to wait of his new house keys as paper work gets sorted out. In the meantime, its SeaWorld time.  

18:00

Chuck say because he does not have a real job, he has to pick up his dad at the hospital. Chuck says he is changing Mandy’s job description to Chief Operating Officer. Derick ask about the hours Mandy works, and talks about legal work laws centered around contractors. 

22:00

Derick mentions he wants to hire a new VA. Derick talks about the video editing and other task that needs to be done to get videos published. He asks if it is worth hiring for this position. John give some feedback on his experience with VAs and outlines what Derick should look out for as far as work tasks and time.  

28:00

John recommends the book From Good to Great by Jim Collins.  John summarizes that people should get the right people on the bus. The EntreProgrammers talk about systemizing the workflow for VAs, and picking those who are motivated to work. 

33:00

John makes a point about hiring people with a great work ethic, even when the job doesn't require technical skill.  EntreProgrammers suggest running trials before giving a virtual assistant job. 

42:00

Chuck mentions it is honest time again. Chuck talks about the issues with his Rails Clips account, and how it was continuing to charge people for a few months now. Chuck says it was about 500 dollars he would have to refund, and including the money raised on the kick-starter. Derick thinks he should complete the videos and kill the project, instead of refunding. 

49:00

Josh suggests to pick a day to get the videos done and let the customers know when to expect them. Then stick to the date. 

53:00

John and Josh share information on the failed sales attempt for Simple Programmer. Josh gives details about the Drip email sequence issues. John has as few theories, one that it is because it is spring break. Also, the timing and and the batch of people they are targeting might have been off. 

1:03:00

Josh wants to try doing a random sample and trying tagging in Drip. Chuck mentions that his mail list is now over 6 thousand people on his list. Chuck also mentions trying to finish his e-book. 

1:08:00

John talks about how he was invited to China to do a talk about Soft Skills. John mentions he saw his book in the wild in a Barnes & Noble. Derick suggests he should’ve signed them. 

1:12:00

Chuck mentions that he is going to be at the Build Conference right before Micro Conf. Derick is questioning where he wants Watch Me Code to go. Derick says he needs some help thinking through the next steps. Josh suggest calling it Screencast Leaf. John suggest making it a turnkey type of product. 

1:23:00

John and Josh talk about building up a list. Chuck thinks the DPD is terrible.  EntreProgrammers talk about what Derick’s options are to improve the overall performance and growth of Watch Me Code.   

1:32:00

Derick talks about his Watch Me Code needs. Derick says he may have to wait for a while until he starts talking to people about providing a partnered service. Derick and Josh talk about doing something similar to UDemy or Lynda for his videos. 

1:38:00 

Josh and Derick agree that Watch Me Code is somewhat of a business to business service. Derick mentions that he got his Deadline Funnel account turned back on. Derick explains how the Deadline Funnel works. 

1:45:00

Derick tries to find out if the funnel is cookie based, to implement an email strategy. Derick wants to get the deadline funnel implemented so that his sales will truly have a deadline. 

1:50:00

Derick mentions to watch out when working with the Google AdWords guy. 

Mar 16, 2016

Episode 108 “We Are The Man!”

3:20 

We’re Live! John talks about his moving situation and is schedule to move. 

6:54

Chuck talks about discovering security issues with a baby video monitor. Derick talks about the the marketing strategy in Samsung smart TVs. John talks about how privacy will soon be a thing of the past. 

11:30

Derick talks about the FBI and Apple situation. John talks about the how anyone could cancel a flight or an electricity account with  a little bit of information on the accounts or confirmation numbers. 

15:00

John says in there future it would be a situation of privacy verses identity. 

19:00

John talks about the DPD tracking and email information from customers. John and Josh talk about how to do tagging and make decisions base on the numbers from Drip. 

25:00

John mentions that he does not want people to buy a product and get an email for a discount afterward. Derick says he is still dealing with the same issue. Josh talks more about how DPD works.  Derick is trying to set up his PayPal account correctly.

32:00

EntreProgrammer talk about how people are changing up emails more often.  Josh mentions some tracking practices used to advertised to potential customers. John mentions the efforts in trying to secure privacy when there are no major consequences. Only worry about this if you’re running for Presidency.  

40:00

Chuck changes to the topic to getting back to work and being creative in his business. Chuck is having a rough time finding a bookkeeper. Chuck shares his experience with trying to hire people for the job. He continues  to talk about the work he is passing along to his assistant, Mandy. 

50:00

John talks about the work that they have among their virtual assistants and personal assistant. John thinks that some of the work load needs to be passed off to others, so they could do more relative work for the business. Chuck says he does not want to get into the “employee vs. contract” type of work. 

56:00

Derick recommends the book “Three Big Questions for a  Frantic Family” by Patrick Lencioni. 

1:00:00

Josh learns that he has to say “no” to everything in order to get important this done. John sounds like he is excited about the new automated system he has setup with Simple Programmer, and his VA. 

1:11:00

Josh talks about automating some working in the past at TrackAbout. Derick shares his ideas for a new RabbitMQ pitch. Josh recommends some email strategies to Derick for this new pitch.  

1:18:00

Derick says he is enjoying working in the Drip Workflows.  Josh mentions he is able to shares some inside info with Derick when he is ready. John mentions to be careful what they call the campaigns. Josh talks about the Planko machine. 

1:26:00

Derick talks out the sales and discount codes with Watch Me Code. Derick talks the double opt-in on Thrive.   

1:33:00

Josh talks about the Canadian expression consent or double opt-in. Everyone apologizes to Canadan for sucking real bad. Derick talks about the constant emails he is sending to his followers.

1:41:00

John mentions seeing an ad for Constant Contact. John and Josh talk about getting template style copy, and how annoying it is the receive them. Josh says he needs relevant information… John suggests that Derick should sell his crocheting patterns. Josh says Derick could not bill developing hours for crocheting. 

1:50:00

John talks about the views on Simple Programmer, as he shares information on the in-stream and pre-rolls.  John mentions reaching 19,000 subscribers on YouTube, with plans to reach 100,000 and the end of the year. 

Thoughts for the Week!

Chuck -  Find an and solution…

Josh - A little bit everyday, gets you there!

Derick  -  Know when to quit! 

John - If you’re afraid to lose, you will.

Mar 8, 2016

“It’s Not a Negotiation Unless There’s Blood”

3:20
And We’re Live! Derick shares more of his crocheting talents, and might be going into to business with someones grandma. More on the dropping subscribers, but increasing income. Derick mentions he may be hooking up a designer for his website. Derick talks about creating a new way to purchase subscriptions and videos.

10:00
John ask about the cost for the new designs. Or maybe he should invest in something else. Derick is looking at investing in the designs, so he can free up time to do real work, instead of designing himself.

13:00
EntreProgrammers talk about the user research and ways to look at project’s worth. John, Josh, and Chuck have a concern about the idea Derick is thinking about doing. Josh thinks that Derick needs to increase subscribers in order to break even. John thinks content creation will help to increase subscribers.

20:30
EntreProgrammers talk about the keyword and SEO optimization to help Derick’s website traffic. John ask to look at what has brought on the most traffic and subscribers. John asks if publishing news letters in JS News Weekly would help. John thinks YouTube would be a great outlet of content for Derick.

29:00
Chuck mentions the retreat and trying to help fix Derick’s sales funnel for Watch Me Code. Josh talks about discovering cracks in the wall, verses painting on the wall. Josh suggest working on traffic for Watch Me Code, instead of design.

35:00
Josh shares the pitch sequence of Simple Programmer with Derick to help with offers, pitches, and traffic. Chuck sees how this would go into Express Basics. Derick ask if it would be better spending his time on traffic, or launching a new product.

44:00
John talks through the ‘all you can eat scenario for the selling bundles and subscriptions.”

58:00
Josh talks about the email sequence that he created for Simple Programmer. John talks about addING the email strategy as a course for Simple Programmer.

1:02:00
John talks about a recent lifting injury that cause constant pain in his shoulder area. John share his experience with a codeine trip. John talks his sexism in Simple Programmer.

1:19:00
Chuck talks about his top ten episode emails, and current projects he is tackling. Josh makes some suggest for Chucks emails. Chuck talks about maybe putting together a Drip sequence for his email. John suggests getting an affiliate product to offer for Chucks customers. John talks about White Labeling products instead of affiliates.

1:28:00
Chuck talks about the Meet Up mistakes he made in Amsterdam. Chuck mention he is going to do another Meet Up at Build. Chuck mentions helping startup podcast for his network. John talks about maybe turning his videos into podcasts. Chuck gives some feedback on the podcast idea.

1:40:00
EntreProgrammers talk about video hosting for a video podcast. Chuck mention this is 11 year wedding anniversary. John is moving next week, and everything is shipping out. John mention he does not understand people on Craiglists. EntreProgrammers talk about negotiations. Derick talks about negotiation with the IRS.

1:52:00
John and Josh mention they have 200 plus pending ideas on their Trello board.

1:58:00
Chuck ask about some advice on a bookkeeper on Upwork. John has some leads for Chuck. Josh gives some suggestion about how to approach someone for bookkeeping.

Thoughts of the Week!

John - Pain is an opportunity to get down to the depth of your character.

Josh - If your are not blocking time off to do something you say…You’re probably not serious!

Derick - Take ten minutes to have take difficult conversation…

Chuck - Focus. On one major thing at a time.

Mar 1, 2016

“We Have Become The Man!”

3:15

No Chuck today, because of a conference scheduling conflict. John and Josh have their second meeting for the day, first for Simple Programmer and now for the EntreProgammers. Josh talks about changing up his lighting situation for his office, and other routine workflows.

13:00

John talks about gesture base lights fixtures. Josh talks about how voice recognition still has a long way to go before it is easy enough to use. John thinks its probably learning properly, or investing time in how use it, similar to a keyboard skills. 

17:00

Josh shares his experience with Siri, creating reminders, emails, and other things. 

20:00

John thinks subvocalization feature will be more useful as it get developed. Josh thinks it is dorky to talk to Siri, or babbling into your phone in publicly. Josh shares more about his new lights.

25:00

John mentions final being able to record a video, after having video troubles.  When thing start to get busier,  John is talking about hiring a junior marketer. John talks about possibly having an attack on one of their servers.  John mention losing 3 days of work trying to figure out the problems. 

36:30

John needs an expert and Linux an WordPress to get fully optimized. John talks about still using Varnish and other tools.

40:00

John and Josh talks about the dropping number of opt-ins on the course site, and looking at the options for testing. Josh notice that the infinite scrolling is not working on the Simple Programmer site. Heres to live testing!  Josh finds that the scroll mat is broken. 

51:00

John is planning a March sale, and planning to do a sale once a quarter. Josh talks about plans for a spring 2016 sale, and re-purposing some of the sale plans material. John talks more about the growth on his YouTube channel.

59:00

John shares that they’ve sold 52 copies of 10 Steps…,   45 copies of the blog course work book, and 16 copies of “How to Market Yourself,” for the month of February.

1:03:00

John mentions that he just did an interview with PBS or a show call Road Trip Nation.  Josh mentions working on the Tagging system with Drip. 

1:08:00

John thinks its funny that he several month ago was try to remove himself from Simple Programmers, but is now the spokes person for the company. John shares more about how he changed his mindset about growing his company. John mentions they have a unique corner in the industry with Simple Programmer. 

1:17:00

John talks about the behind the scene work with the small team he has built.  Josh is excited about Maze 2.0 from Perry Marshall. John suggests being used a case study with advertising.

1:27:00

Josh talks about how it is important not to give Rodrigo to much work, or take him out of his talents. Josh mentions that lifestyle businesses are not sustainable in the long run, as far as growing, and the prices of ads and marketing.

1:35:00

John talks about how he will have to find a new videographer when he moves to San Diego. John shares an equipment list he currently has setup for video recording.  Josh talks about the planning for the next product for Simple Programmer. 

1:45:00

John talks about cleanup all their projects, getting to the point where they can acquire sponsorships in the future.  John shares that a sale had just came in during the call. 

1:49:00

Josh and John talk about their sales through PayPal, and configuration with their sales accounts. 

1:58:00

John suggests the idea of an EntreProgrammers Slack channel. Josh thinks a Facebook group would be better. 

Thoughts of the Week

John - “You don't have to light yourself on fire to keep everyone else warm.”

Josh - “Daily habits beat, weekly routine”

Feb 23, 2016

“This Week In Podcasting Problems”

3:18

We’re Live!

Derick says he was inspired last week. He’s now got two people on annual subscriptions. Also, some work on ‘Watch Me Code,’ and updates the series page, plus a possible video player in the future. 

7:25

Derick is about ready to call himself “Master of WordPress plugins,” after all the work he has recently done in WP. Derick shares information on WP developing. Derick mentions using Migrate DB Pro, and answers Josh’s questions about DB Pro. 

12:45

Josh ask if John needs a copy of Simple Programmer running else where…as backup. 

16:00

John talks about manually migrating a site. Derick swears that Migrate DB Pro is worth using to take care of migration. Josh talks about migrating a customers site at TrackAbout. 

19:00

Josh mentions that he wants the ability to add tags in Thrive. Derick asks what Josh is doing with the tags. John mentions that Rob should create this feature for them in Drip. 

22:00

Josh finds other things Thrive can’t do. John talks about the integration and how that helps their needs. Derick ask about the Smart Links.  

28:00

John talks about finding the next unique thing to do as far as a marketing strategy. Derick talks about how someone out there might have the next ‘big thing.’ John talks about using retargeting pixels instead of pop-ups, and all kinds of configurations to change things up.  Josh talks about the cost of promoting on Facebook. 

32:00

John mentions to check out Neil Patel’s strategy on his blog posts to “Like” his page on Facebook. 

36:00

Derick says that for all the complaints they have for Thrive, he really likes using it and is gold he made the switch. Derick likes the screen filler light box. Josh talks about how 85% of traffic does not care about purchasing products.

41:00

John mentions he is moving soon, and using a full service moving company. Derick talks about using LED lights.  EntreProgrammers talk about moving and service rates for movers. John mentions he is not driving, and is shipping his car to San Diego.  

55:00

Josh talks about the time shift they with have when John moves to California. Josh mention most of his clients were in California. John is using officially using Slack with Simple Programmer.  Josh mentions having several channels of communication apps when working with clients. 

58:00

John and Josh talk about not overworking their VA. Josh talks about systemizing in Simple Programmer. John suggests reading “Built To Sell” by  John Warrillow

1:06:00

John talks about finding the leverage points in Simple Programmer. John shares that he is pissing off the internet over a recent published video title. John might lose some subscribers…over this one? 

1:15:00

Derick says he can’t stand the stereotype of socially awkward smart people on TV show “Big Band Theory.” John sees the show from a different angle. 

1:21:00

Derick and Josh talk about their recent movie selections.  Josh shares his thoughts about the movie “The Martian” and the book version. Derick shares that he fixed the Rabbit MQ issues during the podcast call.

1:35:00

John talks about days before the Cloud. Here is more talk about migrating, to a new computers. 

Thoughts of the Week

John - Don’t apologize. Be intention in what you do. 

Josh - Not building stuff before you need it…

Derick  - Run with the motivation when you have it.

Feb 16, 2016

Episode 104 “Adult Category”

3:15
John shares his recent trip with Josh to the Traffic and Conversion Summit. John talks about the potential growth that Simple Programmer could have in the future. John mention how valuable the conference was for him. John mentions seeing Gary Vaynerchuk and how he dropped the F-bomb at least 100 times in his talk.

10:00
John talks about how Gary V. thinks that Snap Chat is the next ‘happening' app and platform. John talks about a canning website, and how one can make an offer on buying the domain, base on the revenue numbers. Making money without any risk…

17:00
John talks about how Soft Skills could blowup with the marketing skills they have on their side. John mention their Trello board has 200 to dos in the list.

18:30
Chuck talks about how iPheaks got invited to Microsoft Build conference, which might throw a wrench in the retreat plans.

21:00
Derick talks about the new direction of Microsoft, and how it is not the same old Microsoft as it use to be. Derick is trying to find his flight confirmation tickets for the retreat and conference.

24:00
Chuck mentions going through some ‘funk’ this past week, but is feeling much better. Chuck is trying to get it together for his Amsterdam visit. Chuck talks about reaching some milestones on some of his podcasts.

28:00
Chuck asks for advice about rising the prices for some sponsorship slots in his podcasts. Derick asks what analytics do the sponsors look at to make prices fair. Chuck talks about giving a discount for long-time sponsors, Derick thinks its a good idea.

33:00
Chuck mentions that he sort of announced he was writing a book on a recent podcast he was invited to. Now he has to write a book! Derick favors Fiverr for a cover art for the book. John thinks 99 Designs might be better. Chuck talks about putting up a blog post for the book. Derick makes of marketing suggestions for the landing page.

37:00
Chuck asks about a long form sales page, and when he should create one. Chuck asks about what to do about interviews and payment. Derick mentions making it worth their time, instead of money. Possibly letting them pitch and plug their companies.

43:00
Derick talks about how bad “Watch Me Code” is doing still. 7 sign-ups in 12 days. Derick is working at driving some traffic to the site. Derick talks about moving to Thrive and disabling SumoMe. Derick is happy with the varies configuration in Thrive. Derick talks about giving a month for things to pan out when trying a new tool. Derick shares some features of SumoMe with Chuck.

53:30
Derick is planning for the Node JS projects coming up and is currently looking for people who are experts in the platform. Derick talks about the specialties and the kind of people he wants for the Node JS project. Derick mentions getting contacted by someone off of Twitter.

1:01:00
Derick says he is “Done” speaking at conferences. Derick ask if that is a “sane thing” to do. Chuck says if the money is good then keep doing it. Derick shares his thoughts about the doing conferences and the time that is going into it. Chuck mentions that Derick should choose conferences that will payoff it time and the value of the network.

1:09:00
John shares this thoughts about speaking conferences. John mentions that in some situations. Getting on a podcast is more valuable then speaking at a conference.

1:15:00
Chuck mentions planning to go to the podcast movement in July. Chuck asks if he and Josh made any major strategic plans. John explains where he and Josh are going with Simple Programmer. John mentions that he is going to fire is VA and hiring someone to answer emails for Simple Programmer, and handle customer service duties.

1:22:00
John talks about the continually growth on his YouTube channel. John ask about setting up a Patreon account for his YouTube channel. Derick talks about try it and monitoring it, while using other types of resources to see if it is worth it.

1:29:00
John mentions that Derick could do Webinars instead of conferences. Chuck talks about an easier way to conduct a webinar. John ask the team to look at Similar Web. Derick’s “Watch Me Code” site shows similarities to the those in the Adult Category.

1:37:00
John talks about buying dead sites, to gain a bigger audience? John talks about associations with sites, instead of subscribing. Derick tells John to checkout the book The Automatic Customer by John Warrillow. Derick has is doubt about the certification idea.

1:48:00
John mentions that he just sold his house in Tampa. Derick is refinancing his house…

Thoughts of the Week

Derick - Insanity is doing the same thing, expecting different results.

John - To think bigger.

Chuck - Take minute to ponder, pray, or meditate…

Resources Mentioned in this Episode

Patreon
https://www.patreon.com

SimilarWeb
http://www.similarweb.com

The Automatic Customer by John Warrillow.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LFYXDNQ/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1

Feb 9, 2016

Episode 103 “Panic Room”

3:20

Chuck talks about driving in bad weather conditions in Spanish Folk Utah, during an unexpected blizzard. Chuck tells us about becoming sick because of stress. 

6:51

John shares his blizzard experience in Idaho. John talks about the near death experience of coming within feet cliff. 

10:51

Chuck explains all the winter weather craziness was his whole week. 

11:32

John explains that homes are significantly more expensive than homes in Florida, but insurance is cheaper in California. Possibly because of the likelihood of hurricanes and tornadoes in Florida, rather than earthquakes. 

15:25

Chuck and John talk about hollow earth theory.

17:00

Derick talks about selling Girls Scout cookies, and posting a sob story on Facebook about the trials of Girls Scouts. Sounds like these Girls Scouts could teach Derick about marketing. 

20:00

Derick has a question about Sumo Me, and  talks about some email signup arguments. Derick wants to customize the way his signups look, but he is using the free version. Should Derick pay for Thrive application?

 23:00

Josh talks about really liking Thrive, when he used for the Simple Programmer project. Josh reassures Derick that the Thrive plugin is very customizable to fit what Derick want to do. Josh gives some detail about the differences with SumoMe.  Josh talks about setting up a welcome mat and using the Drip APIs, in the app. 

28:00

John talks more about how Thrive themes are better for internet marketing, and all kinds of features that cater to marketing.  John mentions the image compress feature and social media sharing. Chuck mention that these features are only available on a WordPress site. 

32:00

Chuck ask about how to use the Thrive themes outside of a WP site. Josh explains that Chuck could use a type of Landing Page.  Derick mentions he needs to pay someone to convert his SumoMe stuff to Thrive. Any takers? 

35:00 

Josh mentions the he fired an awesome VA, Nat. Josh talks about how his VA may have did research for his hiring process. Josh mentions that Nat maybe a go to man for their WP needs. John almost mentions a solution to the trust situation with giving out credentials. 

45:00

Josh talks about being hack and the venerability on the internet. Josh talks about asking his VA to document his steps.  Josh say he feels guilty, because he thinks Nat may have pull and all nighter for some up his projects. John talks about the issues with a former VA. 

47:00

John mentions he is officially moving to San Diego. John talks about getting a great interest rate for financing a new home. EntreProgrammers share some interest rates on mortgages and things they learned. John is excited about his new interest rates. 

51:00

John shares a  little bit of information about the house he moving into, and how he plans to use one of the spaces for a sound booth. Josh mentions it could double as a panic room. Derick shares the chaotic toy setup at his house. 

1:02:00

Derick mentions that Watch Me Code has been doing mediocre. Derick shares that his subscriber numbers are going down, but would like to keep above 425 subscribers. Derick is talking about 5 different series for his next bundle This would be The Node JS and Express JS Training Guide for New Java Script Developers.  Derick thinks this will be a pretty popular bundle compare to RabbitMQ.  Derick talks about annual subscription sales for the future. 

1:09:00

The EntreProgrammers talk about paying for a big annual price and how that affects the decision to purchase. Derick mentions he may have to put video games down to get some things done. 

1:17:00

The EntreProgrammers discuss opt-in and double opt-ins and ticking people off with emails. John mentions his new bookkeeper is doing a good job. Derick talks about how his bookkeeper is happy with his organization. Josh mentions that he needs a knowledgeable bookkeeper. 

1:26:00

John mentions that the YouTube Simple Programmer channel is growing with some huge number of reviews. Josh talks about new workflow in Drip.  Josh and Derick discuss the new features in Drip. Derick talks about Segments and how he uses them. Josh talks about the detail and insight of the purchases in the new features. 

1:36:00

John and Josh talks about the sales on Simple Programmer, from the How to Market Yourself and The Ten Steps courses.

1:42:00

Derick talks about how some one said his prices are to high, but does not need the money for consulting. Derick says he is just maintaining and not much to talk about.

1:46:00

John mentioned that his Soft Skills audio book version is out doing the book version. John gives some backend information on Soft Skills book and subscribers.  John is planning on a new entrepreneurial course. 

Thoughts of the Week!

Derick - Don’t prevent your employees from doing their job.

John  - If you don’t let go of what your have, you can’t get what you want.

Josh - Cut the cord and a lot of stuff… 

Chuck - Not everything has to be about getting where you’re going.

Feb 2, 2016

Episode 102 “Trailer Park to Entrepreneur Story”

 3:18

And we’re live! Chuck mentions feeling like an outsider after last the episode with Larry. Chuck talks about taking care of the house duties. Josh talks about the upcoming duties of taking the kids to preschool. 

6:20

Chuck shares some information on CES, and running into the host of Java Script Jabber. Chuck might do a review for a standup desk company Autonomous.ai. Josh mentions to make sure he does not have to send the desk back after doing a review.  Chuck shares that he bought some new wheels. 

11:15

Chuck talks about his sales number from conferences and special corporation groups. John mentions find out who the corporations are a scout out how to to get more people in on conference sales. Chuck asks about how to go about talking to the corporations about how they heard of his conferences. Chuck shares that he hired a new developer who is an EntreProgrammers listener.  

17:30

Chuck talks about changing his title to CEO, so he does not have to do any developing. Chuck is missing his passport.  John talks about how you can fake a passport, but not 5 years of online history. 

21:00

Chuck talks about expediting a passport so he can travel. Turns out the some travel agencies can help expedite passports, because they have a relationship with the states. John called the process “Paying the Stupid Tax.” Chuck talks about strategically not paying Uncle Sam. Chuck talks about not paying quarterly taxes for a while.  Josh asks how Chuck was able to pay so little on taxes, after 3 years of not paying. 

29:00

Lesson learned and Chuck faithful pays his taxes this year. Chuck shares his fool proof plans for keeping up the Uncle Sam share. Chuck also shares that he had some troubles foreclosures, but all is good now. 

34:00

Josh talks about how things can spin out of control quickly. But, Chuck had the right tools to make things right again. 

38:00

John mentions at that its best to come clean and in the clear now, rather then when he is making millions. Chuck asks about how to do a Meet Up in Amsterdam during his travels. John gives some details about the meet up he did while on vacation in Amsterdam. 

43:00

Chuck ask for some advice to do a specialized training. Josh talks about pricing it on the higher end. Josh talks about his coaching sessions per student, per month. Chuck mentions coach on setting up a freelance business. Josh explains the details of charging on the higher end. John talks about how this project is a “next year” idea, and how he should focus on staying the course. John mentions to prepare to ‘crash and burn,’ just incase. 

52:30

John shares that he put an offer of a house in San Diego. John shares some information about the attractive amenities of San Diego. John is nervous about the possibilities of the big purchase.  John mentions he feels like he is in a position to take on more, and experience more. 

1:04:00

John mentions that his YouTube channel hit over 15,000 subscribers and has the same amount of views as the Simple Programmer site.  John talks about going Lego Land and Disney Land. 

1:09:00

John talks about some numbers on Simple Programmer. Josh talks about how he tracking the sales on the 97 dollar prices. John talks about hiring a quickbooks guy, and magically gets an approval from quickbooks. Josh talks about some of the complication using Quickbooks. Chuck ask about the plans they offer, Josh give some feedback on the fees and details. 

1:18:00

Josh give some details on figuring out his budget for business expense, and profits. Josh talks about a cash basis accounting, because his business is simple. 

1:21:00

Chuck talks about using Harvest for invoicing only. EntrePrgorammers share some tools they use for accounting. 

1:30:00

Chuck talks about the tellers reaction when he was switching banks. John talks about Chase banks features for private clients. 

1:33:00

John talks about “The Way Of The Superior Man”  by David Deida

1:37:00

Josh talks about finally cracking into entrepreneur.com. Josh reaches out to some connections to contact the editor at Entrepreneur. Josh reaches out to James Clear to get through to Entrepreneur. Josh shares some of the process information and practices of Entrepreneur. Josh mentions his plans to reach out to INC. magazine after Entrepreneur. 

1:49:00

Josh mentions hiring a new VA, who have some interest in EntreProgrammers’ show. 

1:53:00

John gives everyone feedback about how to ace a job interview. John mentions that Edgar is finally fixed.  John talks about ‘random’ publish issue in Edgar.

Thoughts of the Week

Josh - Pipeline, streamline, and be prolific 

John -Don’t take things personally, but as a challenge. 

Chuck -  If you want it hard enough and work hard enough, then you can do it. 

 

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…

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