Business Intentional with Shelby Larson

How to Master Your Product's Lifespan and your Productivity from the "Come Back King" of ABC's Shark Tank

How to master Your Product's lifespan and your productivity from the "Come Back King" of ABC's Shark Tank You may recognize this episode's guest, Stephan Aarstol, as being the “come back king” of ABC’s Shark Tank, but this serial entrepreneur has much more to offer our listeners than insite on how to get investors like Mark Cuban on your side. Stephan also mastered the management of a product’s lifespan and the benefits of funneling the 5 hour work day approach through his entire company. In this episode, Stephan explains how he turned his horrible proposal of Tower Paddle Boards into now Mark Cuban’s top investment in Shark tank history by becoming business intentional. He also shares the way to plan for future diversification while scaling your current business at the same time. Stephan has turned the CEO mindset of 5 hour work days into a company policy for the past two years. Learn the pros and cons he has experienced by pushing his employees to work harder and faster while also giving them more personal time. Points of Interest From This Episode 1:37 Learn about Stephan’s experience on Shark Tank and his offer from Mark Cuban. 2:50 Stephan’s company, Tower Paddle Boards is now one of the top investments in Shark tank history. 3:10 Learn how Stephans business intentional Pitch on Shark tank can help you with everyday business pitches. 6:00 Speak to what your listeners actually care about in order to grab their attention. 7:10 Stephan found that applying his services to a product was more successful than becoming a marketing consultant 8:30 Stephan shares his entrepreneurial experiences with selling products. 8:50 Today’s business world is a boom a peak and a bust. How do you stay successful? 12:35 The things Stephan did to plan for the future diversification while scaling his current business at the same time. 14:50 Stephan shares how he implied a 5 hour work day to his entire company. 17:00 As we evolve, our production rate improves and the work hour should change to reflect that. 18:20 Stephan found that there were a few issues with the 5 hour work day. 20:15 Learn about identification of productivity tools. 20:30 visit 5hourworkday.com to find productivity tools for your team that will allow you to work at a faster rate. 25:55 How lowering the hours also raised the hourly rate of Stephan’s employees. 28:00 Time is more valuable than money to millennials.

Conquer the Complications of Payment Processing

Conquer the Complications of Payment Processing As a business owner in the 21st century, any time you’re accepting payments you’re at the mercy of your merchant account providers. Having money held, your accounts closed, and/or your rates increased without notice is all too common – and businesses don’t stick around very long if they can’t accept credit cards. That is why I decided to interview the master of payment processing and founder of Easy Pay Direct,  Brad Weimert. Easy Pay Direct created software that allows entrepreneurs to accept credit cards safely and securely – without interruption. In this episode, Brad shares all the dos and don'ts when it comes to finding the correct payment processing method for your company whether it be ecommerce or brick and mortar, selling a service or a product. Find out what is legal and what is illegal when it comes to payment processing, how to manage multiple merchant accounts, and much more. Points of Interest From This Episode 3:40 - The difference between all of the different payment processing systems like PayPal, Stripe, and traditional merchant accounts. 4:30 -  Good payment processing options for a new business. 5:09 - The foundational difference between the two types of payment processors. 6:05 - The benefits of traditional merchant account providers. 8:10 -  Payment providers are looking at your account and could close your account or hold funds for any plethora of reasons. 9:05 - What is legal and what is illegal when it comes to payment processing. 10:35 - 99% of traditional merchant account providers  will operate the exact same way as Stripe and PayPal. 11:36 - How to manage multiple merchant accounts. 13:30 - Two terrible things you could do when you're trying to set up multiple merchant accounts. 14:00 - How you can  get put on what's called the MATCH list (member alert to control high risk) 14:50 - Why you should NOT  go out and apply to 15 places at the same time. 17:24 - how to evaluate yourself, understand what your merchant processing needs are, and how to weigh that against the different options out there. 17:50 - The three things merchant account providers are looking for when they underwrite accounts. 18:50 - Trial offers are much higher risk because there is a much higher likelihood somebody will refund or dispute that charge. 20:11 -  Scenarios that are common pain points for entrepreneurs and business owners. 22:30 - Why you don't want more than one percent of your sales disputed. 23:00 - It's important to know that you have two big bodies that you have to be concerned with, your card brands and your providers. 23:30 - Working with the right provider is the biggest thing. 24:10 - Make sure you have more than one account. 24:31 - How do I make sure that I find the right provider?

The Best Ways to Successfully Selling Books

When it comes to talking about publishing and promoting a book, there is no one better to learn from than my dear friend, Michael Drew. He has had 88 books on the New York Times Best Sellers List, which happens to be two more than oprah. Because of his accomplishments, I really wanted to pick his brain to figure out the best ways to go about successfully selling books. In this episode, Michael tells all about how the New York Best Sellers List has recently switched up their requirements to involve much more business intentional marketing done by the author, when choosing which books are on the list. He also will walk you through the distribution and publishing world and help you decide which avenue is best for your book when it comes to the success you desire. Michael truly stands behind his belief that the purpose of promoting a book should be to grow a platform and not a status. Learn how this belief can help you get books sold and get yourself on the New York Times Best Sellers list. To learn more about Michael Drew, his company, and how I used Michael’s advice for my book Moonlighting on the Internet, go to businessintentional.com/podcast/promotabook. Points of Interest From This Episode: 2:30 - Benefits that authors get from having their books on the New York Times best sellers. 3:00 - A book for business owners is used to grow audience size, grow credibility, increase speaking fees. 3:40- the growth of democratization of media online and how that affects bookselling. 4:15 - Book marketing may not be direct revenue generating, but it is a great way to expand your audience size. 5:00 - Publishing a book with a platform versus not having a platform is a completely different situation. 5:54- Recent rules that go with the business of publishing a book. 7:05 - The publisher only prints, and distributes the book it is now completely up to the Author to do the promotions. 8:00- In order to play the book sales game, you must get your book in brick-and-mortar retail stores. 8:40- What criteria determines whether a retail bookstore is going to carry your book title over other titles? 9:00 - How your book’s grade level determines how many of your books a store will carry. 9:20 - The marketing and advertising that the author brings to the table is the only way to increase a book’s grade level. 10:00 - How to improve the risk mitigation mindset of publishers and retail stores for your book through intelligent marketing. 14:40 - What authors can do to really increase their ability to get their book distributed 15:25 - The New York Times best Sellers List is not a real best sellers list. 16:30 - The value of being on the New York Times Best Sellers List is not in the status but rather in the activity it takes to be on the list. 17:12 - What to think about when leveraging a book campaign. Focus on building a platform rather than the status. 18:00 - New changes to the New York Times best Sellers requirements like social proof and ebooks. What does that mean for those who would really like to be on that list? 21:10 - The purpose of a book should be for the promotion of the business. 24:50- Michael tells why the benefit to self publish vs. traditional publishing depends on your existing platform and desired outcome. 25:50- the reason why, If being a best seller is your desired outcome then you must go the traditional publishing route. 26:25-  the reason why If you go the self publishing route, don’t try and force your books onto retail shelves. 27:30- if you are publishing a book to make money, self publishing is the way to go. 27:52- With the bestsellers list, you need to keep engagement in mind. 28:55- How to determine the correct publisher for your book. 30:20 - to learn more about Michael Drew’s company go to www.promoteabook.media [http://www.promoteabook.media]

Re-Imagining Non Profit Potential Susanna Spiccia from Reimagine ATL

Host of Business Intentional, Shelby Larson interviews Susanna Spiccia from Reimagine ATL about her amazing Non-Profit that helps the youth in our country have a voice. I first met Susanna at the Spanx headquarters in Atlanta. The Sara Blakely Foundation teamed up with the Center for Civil Innovation and Susanna was one of the awesome female social entrepreneurs doing amazing work. I was immediately drawn to Susanna and her organization, especially her vision for No Comment, a news media organization run solely by teens covering topics from teen homelessness, gender challenges, to mental health issues that are currently a struggle for the youth in our society. I wanted to interview her for two reasons: Her organization is one that I TRULY believe in and is worth bringing awareness to.She has attracted impressive donors, support and celebrity attention for her organization that anyone with a business, especially a non-profit, would LOVE to do. You can go to http://businessintentional.com [http://businessintentional.com]... to learn all about Re-imagine ATL, No Comment and some of Shelby’s top take-aways after sitting on the Maverick 1000 impact board for 2 years and working with all of their cause partners. Points of Interest from this episode: 3:08 - Susanna tells us all about Reimagine ATL 4:20 - The new launch of NOCO Media (No Comment) 5:48 - How Six Man got involved with re-imagine ATL 6:40- Learn why large companies like Turner, Sara Blakely, and the Grammy’s sponser Re- Imagine 11:05 - Susanna shares how she got the support of national brands 11:52- How Linkedin helped Susanna reach out 13:34- How having fun and entertainment makes this organization stand out among the rest when it comes to investors 16:20- How Susanna brings in investors through sweat equity vs. money and the success that brings 17:20- The concept behind No Comment Launching April 1st through social media live stream. 20:30 - How the power of gratitude brings a steady flow of volunteers to her organization. 22:00 - Skill-based volunteers vs. Cash donations 23:34 - How important the ask is when you need something done for your business 24:30 - April 1st, 2017 - You do NOT want to miss this! 27:20 - Susanna’s top takeaways for running a successful non-profit 28:00 - The importance of staying connected to the end product and the good that comes from all of the hard work scaling a non-profit takes 29:00 - Finding, and connecting, to donors who will naturally care about YOUR cause

Yanik Silver & Evolved Enterprise

The business-intentional focus of this episode is two-fold: To Thine Own Self Be True: How to create sustainable businesses that are in alignment with your true self. Charity That Drives Revenue: How to create evolved enterprises where having a cause partner actually DRIVES revenue for your business. One of the many things that I love about Yanik is that he truly walks his walk. With the launch of his new book and program - Evolved Enterprise he has lifted 1,000 people out of poverty. For more information on Yanik's Evolved Enterprise journey in creating Maverick Village in Africa and on how you too can create your own Evolved Enterprise and make altruism a tactical business advantage check out my blog at http://businessintentional.com/cause-partner-advantages [http://businessintentional.com/cause-partner-advantages] Points of Interest From the Episode 3:55: - Being in alignment with your business and staying in alignment with it 5:00 - Entrepreneur Challenge: Working hard to achieve success only to learn that it doesn’t actually fulfill you 6.50 - Incorporating your passions into your business 8.40 - How Yanik has shifted his enterprise the past seven years to reflect his passions 11.55 - Takeaways from Sir Richard Branson’s quote that says, “the key to success is not in figuring out how much money you can make, but how much impact you can have by serving others.” 14.20 - Create space in order to create success and happiness 18.00 - Mindset: Devastating Failure vs. doors closing so you can make a better shift? 19:40 - What I learned from spending the day with Sara Blakely, Founder of Spanx 20.50 - Evolved Enterprise! 22.40 -Which of the 11 Evolved Enterprises in Yanik’s book is Shelby’s favorite 24 - Evolved Consumerism 27.40 - How to Evolve YOUR Enterprise