Hey everybody, welcome back to another list of my 12 Top Podcasts about Building a Business. I know how amazing it feels to build a business, and what it feels like to be stuck building a business. You might be working a day time job, with a dream to build your business. Or you might be working a side hustle, but not sure how to scale your side business from solo-preneur into a real business. My experience building a business from just myself and a co-founder, to over 150 people, was possible because we built culture, processes, systems and teams.
Listen to Podcasts about Building a Business
To start scaling your business, you need to take the activities you are doing now, and find someone who is rising up in their ability to take on new projects, could do the work better than you, and hire them. Culture and equitable compensation are also essential must-haves to create. Pay them well, foster creativity, reward process and achievements, and make it a really enjoyable for people to do fulfilling work. But all this transition of work from your plate to your newest team member doesn’t mean you’re off the hook for work. Your role is transitioning too – to the leader. The number 1 way you will scale your business is by recognizing your role is to be the leader, have vision, give everyone purpose in their role, create fulfillment in the work they do, and ensure people know where you and the company are headed. This will help you onboard new team members, and build a thriving company. Eventually, you’ll even be able to hand over the leadership reins to another leader. Or position the company for a successful acquisition, and give your team more opportunities, compensation, and career path than you ever could have. What a gift for you and for them!
I’ve listed 12 Top Podcasts about Building a Business. You will get a ton of ideas from my podcast guests, who have built businesses from the ground up. Some have sold them, some grew them to large organizations, and some are just past start-up stage. You’ll get an understanding of how they started, how they scaled their business, including hiring new employees, building culture, and what drove them to do it. You’ll also enjoy all the notes on being a great leader. If you want my recommendations on 10 Leadership Habits read this post right now and come back for the rest of the podcasts below.
And if you listen to an episode you like, and want to share it on LinkedIn with your thoughts, please mention me, and I’ll be happy to respond to your post! I really enjoyed these conversations, and I think you will too!
1. Tony Whatley, Side Hustle Millionaire, Creating Financial Freedom – Episode 138
Tony Whatley is known as the Side Hustle Millionaire, where he built multi-million dollar businesses while being full-time employed as an oil and gas engineer. Today, Tony is the founder of 365 Driven, where he teaches thousands of people how to pursue the lives they desire, instead of settling like the rest. Before he became a multi-millionaire, he used to believe that someone had to be rich in order to start a successful company – he proved that was lie. At 365 Driven, Tony created a community that helps entrepreneurs, who are truly driven, to scale their companies and, if they want, position them for a successful exit. Members at 365 Driven get access to amazing perks like live education videos, online courses, and support from over 3500 members. Listen to the 365 Podcast here. Download Tony’s book Side Hustle Millionaire, available on Amazon. Listen Now!
2. Lisa Stelly – Turning a Sprinkle Hobby Into an Edible Art Empire (#266)
Lisa Stelly is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Fancy Sprinkles, the woman-owned and woman-run confectionary sprinkle company that launched in 2016 on a mission to reimagine the edible arts industry from mundane and basic to sexy and cool. As a mother of 3 children, an entrepreneur, reiki healer, and lifestyle personality, Lisa has given life to sprinkles that no one could have ever imagined. Her fun, colorful, edgy, and cool persona emulates throughout each of the brand’s one-of-a-kind products that help consumers unlock their creative potential. Listen Now!
3. Matt Rinka, Partner, Rendering Hidden Opportunities into Modern Designs – Episode 99
Matt Rinka is a partner and architect at Rinka, an innovative architectural practice that connects inspiring designs with practical and functional solutions. The firm has over 65 awards, many from the highest levels of professional recognition including American Institute of Architects (AIA), American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), and the Milwaukee Business Journal. Mike and Matt cover a ton of great stuff in this episode like how a project that didn’t take off ended up being his catalyst, who Matt reveres as his mentor, how he came to believe in the power of close relationships, what he believes the true role of an architect is, and much more. Listen Now!
4. David Hertz, Decreasing Environmental Impact with Regenerative Architecture (#185)
David Hertz is the founder of David Hertz Architects and has focused for the last 37 years on regenerative architecture, which means creating architecture that ultimately gives back more than it takes. Men have had a tremendous impact on our planet, which stems from the belief that we can take anything from nature, use it to make something, and then just waste it. That is very different than how Nature operates, where waste equals food. Growing up in Southern California, David has always been connected to water and became active in issues of water quality and access. That culminated with the invention of Skysource WEDEW, which is a mobile generator that produces fresh drinking water directly from thin air. Listen Now!
5. Andy Hays – Inspired on a Train Station Platform (306)
Andy Hays is an entrepreneur, a lawyer, a master beer brewer, and a world traveler. His firm, called HaysFirm LLC, is a collaborative partnership between Andy and his wife, Antonia. It focuses on estate, probate, trust, and business law, as well as the regulation of restaurants and the acquisition of liquor licenses. Despite having its headquarters in Chicago, the company is purposely designed to be run from wherever Andrew and his family are at any given time, whether in Colorado, Costa Rica, or Croatia. Andrew got the idea of this business model on a train station platform in 2014 when remote working wasn’t a thing yet. Listen Now!
6. Gary Mottershead – Take The Leap! (304)
Gary Mottershead, who has experience in both manufacturing and chemical engineering, thinks it’s critical for specialists to view themselves as business owners first. Gary started GCP Industrial Products in 1999 and has developed into North America’s biggest sheet rubber importer. It has evolved into an innovative, digital-first industry leader today. GCP was one of the first companies to enter China and sources products from many other nations. Gary has been a Strategic Coach client for over 30 years and an associate coach for over 25. He and his wife are proud grandparents and the parents of two entrepreneurial grown children. Listen Now!
7. Dave Liu – Make Yourself a Unique Set of 1 (302)
Dave Liu is a 30-year veteran of Wall Street and Silicon Valley. He is a business consultant, author, investor, and philanthropist. He began his Wall Street career at Goldman Sachs before moving on to Jefferies, where he worked his way up from analyst to managing director and co-head of the investment banking division for digital media and the internet. He worked on more than $15 billion in transactions for numerous businesses, including Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, and Yelp.
After retiring from Wall Street, he created four businesses in the fields of technology, merchant banking, asset management, and media. He recently co-founded Reel8, an NFT marketplace for exclusive moments for films created by Asian filmmakers. Dave serves as the CEO advisor and investor for a number of businesses, including Internet Brands WebMD, MobilityWare, FIGS, and Vobile, some of which have grown to multi-billion dollar “unicorn” status. He also has assets in the entertainment sector, including Stampede and TEG+, as well as in the consumer sector, including Philz Coffee and Francesca’s. One of the biggest media firms in Europe, ProSiebenSat.1 Media, employed him previously as CEO advisor. Listen Now!
8. Josh Elledge – Using Authority to Amplify You (286)
Josh Elledge is a U.S. Navy veteran who became a serial entrepreneur who builds the companies he needs most in the world. In 2014, He launched UpMyInfluence to help entrepreneurs like himself attract the perfect audiences and grow their authority and influence. However, while growing their better-than-PR agency, UpMyInfluence discovered that building 7-figure B2B Sales Systems for consultants and agencies (with zero paid advertising) is actually what they do better than anyone else on the planet. UMI (short for UpMyInfluence) was the natural outgrowth of his first startup, SavingsAngel.com which had grown to more than 50 employees and grossed more than $6 million in sales with zero paid ads. He did it all through building authority and serving audiences in the media. Listen Now!
9. André Brisson – Fighting for the Right to Be Unique (290)
André Brisson has a unique talent for breaking down complex issues and finding solutions. André has launched several businesses, and like most business owners, he first experienced challenges and failures. After learning from previous mistakes, André currently runs three very successful companies, including a self-managing engineering firm (Objective Engineering Inc.) specializing in niche markets requiring unique training, experience, and an impulsive urge to try new things. Recently André was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes, severe ADHD, and later Asperger’s Syndrome. Although his undiagnosed ADHD presented difficulties, it was also the key to his achievements. Since discovering how to turn his ADHD into a strength, people have sought him out for help with using their ADHD as a strength to drive success. Listen Now!
10. Nic Haralambous, Slow-Hustle CEO and Co-Founder, Slowing Your Side-Hustle to Accelerate Your Growth – Episode 164
Nic Haralambous is the CEO and Co-Founder of Slow-Hustle, a community platform where side-hustle and start-up entrepreneurs get guidance on business basics, hustle history of the biggest businesses in the world, live Q&A, online courses, one-on-one coaching, and the help they need to build the business of their dreams. Over the last 20 years Nic has built business and side hustles, many of which were sold. He’s taken the hard knocks, dealt with failure, and overcame all the b.s. that comes with building the business you dream of. You can watch his free masterclass – How to Start a Side Hustle on his website academy.slowhustle.org Listen Now!
11. Dave Davenport, IT Executive, Hiring for Core Values Supersedes Skills – Episode 123
Dave Davenport is an IT Executive, recently the CEO at MotherG , an award winning outsourced IT business partner, and now Regional Vice President at CompassMSP, a strategic IT support company to help businesses and corporations realize end goals faster and unleash their full potential. Nothing can frustrate people more than pesky, reoccurring IT and computer problems, so much so that people can accept the frustration as reality. So Dave set out to have an incredible company culture to deliver amazing experiences for clients.
Dave shares some inspiring stories of changing client lives with technology, but it wasn’t all smooth sailing and what he figured out is that he needed to switch from skill based hiring to culture based hiring. He believes that people cannot be taught and trained on core values – but you need to identify the core values of the role, and hire and reward people that align to those core values. He believes core values already exist in any organization, and can be found through an exercise called peaks and valleys. Peaks are moments where you were so proud of your organization and valleys are moments that frustrated you possible to point of anger, and you look for trends of peaks to help you identify your core values. Listen Now!
12. Tony Chiappetta, Believe in Yourself & Simplify Your Life (#201)
Tony Chiappetta is the CEO of Advanced Microcomputing Concepts (AMC) Modern IT, and his goal is to change the IT game to people-first instead of focused on fixing tech problems. He’s accomplished this over the last years by streamlining his firm and clients to run almost entirely on Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams. As a result, his clients – companies with 20 to 500 people – have been able to consolidate their IT demands into a single platform. To understand how Tony made it to this point, we have to take a step back in 2002.
Two years after graduating from the University of Southern California in 2000, Tony decided to leave the corporate world and become an entrepreneur. He had to face a lot of resistance from his father, who thought his son was taking the wrong business path. But Tony believed in himself and carried on. So, as every new business owner does, he started looking for clients, and it took him 1,000 cold-calls before landing his first client. Listen Now!
One more as a bonus! Become Someone That No One Wants to Complain To (#237)
The more you allow someone to complain to you, about something they can’t control, it’s got an effect on. I’ve become very rigid about protecting my time, energy and focus by not being someone that you can easily complain to. I don’t want to be that person. Nor do I want the person that I’m talking to be someone that I feel like I have permission to complain to. So my short lesson here is, protect your time, protect your focus, protect your energy, by becoming someone that no one wants to complain, too.
When people start complaining to me, I usually go right back at them with something like, Okay, well, you don’t like it, what are you going to do about it, as opposed to, Oh, that’s too bad. I’m sorry, that’s happening for you. And when I do find myself wanting to complain, and maybe I do actually get a little bit of a complaint out, and I’m like, I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to be that person. Listen Now!
Want to know about me, Mike Malatesta, the podcast host?
I’ve lived in entrepreneurial shoes like yours since I was 26. For 30 years I’ve been through – and am still on – the roller coaster you’re on. I’ve experienced the excitement, pain, grit, and mistakes that come with every entrepreneurial journey. You can learn about many of the problems I dealt with starting my companies, and how I overcame them in my book “Owner Shift – How Getting Selfish Got Me Unstuck” available on Amazon. Purchase my book Owner Shift, make notes along the way in the book, and reread all the stories that inspire you to become an entrepreneur. I want this book to inspire you on your entrepreneurial journey to get unstuck, and achieve the future you always imagined.
If you prefer to listen, get my audiobook, Owner Shift. Free with your trial on Audible or Amazon. You’ll get access to all my stories that lead me to become an entrepreneur. Most importantly, you’ll hear my journey to get unstuck, and achieve the future I always imagined. And you’ll hear it directly from me, I narrate the audiobook!
And if you want my professional help as your coach, contact me here. I’ve mastered what it takes to start, build, grow, and sell a business. When I work with clients through my OwnerShift coaching, I help entrepreneurs and business owners get unstuck and start living the life they want.
My purpose is to inspire and activate increasing greatness in entrepreneurs and leaders. My goal is to make a positive and profitable difference with every client I work with. I help clients apply the lessons I’ve been fortunate to learn in my 30 years as an entrepreneur to help them excel and create amazing lives, companies, teams, and futures.
I don’t do this work to make a living.
I do it to make a difference.
I’m very selective about my OwnerShift coaching relationships. I ONLY work with these kinds of clients:
- Entrepreneurs and CEOs of profitable, privately held companies leading companies with revenues between $10M and $250M.
- Leaders who are committed to moving beyond where they are professionally and personally AND have the autonomy to make the decisions and take the actions necessary to do so.
- People who value making significant investments in themselves.
- Kind people.
OwnerShift is an exclusive and customized one on one coaching program for high-performing entrepreneurs and CEOs. It’s designed to guide them to the bigger and brighter personal and professional future they want to own and make their property.
In the OwnerShift program, my client is the Hero, and I am their Guide. I will never have all the answers, but I will always ask the right questions.
My mission is to help every client identify, sharpen, and leverage the tools in themselves, and those in their companies, to make significant progress toward their most important life goals.
Take the first step and learn more about my entire OwnerShift Coaching program.
