The Nights & Weekends Podcast

Craig and Ken are back at it giving updates on their businesses, lives, and the intersection of those two. MastermindJam2 is getting closer to launch, and Ken is excited about the prospects of a much better mastermind platform and the multiple monetization opportunities it presents.  It's been a long road but Ken sees the light at the end of the tunnel where sharing his new version of MMJ with his audience and allow business owners to further their businesses. PodcastMotor continues to thrive and is pretty much on autopilot with Craig's focus shifting much more to Seriously Simple Podcasting.  As SaaS goes Seriously Simple Hosting has gotten off to a good start, and now Craig is managing growing a team and managing the reinvestment of time and money resources.

Welcome back! Sorry about the extra-long hiatus (blame Ken). It's amazing how hard it is to publish a podcast episode that highlights missed goals. big sigh Anyway... This week Ken and Craig discuss priorities for 2017. Topics include: Ken is clumsy with hot coffee Craig's buttery smooth voice courtesy of new headset mic. Podcastmotor acquired WP plugin: Seriously Simple Podcasting Craig likes to ski, Ken not so much. Progress on MastermindJam 2.0, and balancing software completion with marketing tasks Resources to improve at Email Marketing Invisible Selling Machine by Ryan Deiss of Digital Marketer fame Josh Earl Bryan Harris, of Video Fruit Clickfunnels.com Drip Workflows Funnel Engine: Done For You Sales Funnel Creation by Richard Patey MetricDrivenMarketer Funnel ROI Calculator Thrive University inside ThriveThemes Moving from Services to a Product-First business model Time Scarcity, vs. Paralyzed and Overwhelmed   ——— If you enjoyed the show: please, right now, head over to iTunes and leave us a 5-star review. Leave your comments on our site at this episode’s show notes, or send 140 characters of love our way on twitter.

This week is a tribute to Alan Thicke, writer of The Facts of Life theme song, among many others. Today Ken and I are catching up on our businesses, and talking about some next steps for both of us. Craig has his first professional coaching call set up, as he's looking to further refine the operations, independence, and profitability of PodcastMotor.  Looking into 2017 this will be a major focus for him in building out a more diversified, not as dependent on any one person or thing, business that can sustain for the long term. Ken is just weeks away from launching the newest version of MastermindJam, and along with it will come much enhanced user onboarding, meeting scheduling, and hopefully retention. Ken is also looking to build out a small mastermind style trip (similar to the Big Snow Tiny Conf events), but on a sailboat.  If you're interested in meeting other entrepreneurs, talking shop, and working out your businesses in a beautiful setting check out bigsailtinyconf.com

It all comes down to eyeballs sometimes.  Both Ken and I are finding ourselves in a situation where more traffic (and maybe a lot more traffic) will make business really perform better.  Going through the process of testing, evaluating, and implementing some of these traffic generation techniques will be exciting to follow along with in the coming months. MastermindJam is going through a rehaul in the matching algorithm, onboarding, and mastermind automation that it provides.  With this Ken will need to drive a lot more traffic to the site to start getting the engine really purring. Craig has started a new project, a Remote Jobs board that allows businesses with distributed workforces to hire remote designers, developers, marketers, and support team members, anywhere in the world. WorkRemotely.io is going to be a really fun project, but one that will need to grow it's traffic by 10-20x.  No small feat indeed, but Craig is excited about learning some traffic generation techniques that he's not had to utilize with PodcastMotor.

As a business grows and matures it experiences the eventuality of getting some of that "been around for a while" organic juice. Both Ken and I have seen this lately with MastermindJam and PodcastMotor.  More organic search, site traffic, and 'cold' customers coming to our site in the past couple of months, and the only thing to explain it is the slow grind of more content, more chatter in the community, and more reputation for Google to look at. Both Ken and I have been working a lot lately about how to build PodcastMotor and MastermindJam in a way that compliments all of the work we've already done.  It's tempting to look at the shiny object out there that's a totally new field, but it's much more difficult to make an impact in a new field, as opposed to just improving on your current app or market. Resources Mentioned Business Systems Explored LevelsIO on Twitter Entrepreneur on Fire Blog

This week Ken and I are talking about a new project that I'm developing.  After the discussion last week about being a newbie programmer in training I've settled on an initial product to develop. The app is going to be called Monsoon, and you can find it at monsoonapp.com.  While I'm sure the final product will be much different than this initial idea the space it's going to be in is marketing analytics.  Initially this will be a tool to help you plan and prioritize your marketing efforts. Inspired by a blog post by Josh Pigford of Baremetrics and the Traction book by Gabriel Weinberg this is something that I know is top of mind for a lot of folks. Ken's been busy on some new revisions to MasterMindJam, and also starting some customer discovery in the charter sailboat niche. This is a big industry and lots of different approaches he can take to finding a problem to solve. Customer discovery is always a fun, but challenging process, so it'll be interesting to see where this leads. p.s. A virtual High Five for anyone who can tell me where this picture was taken.  Tweet at us @weekendspodcast

This week Ken and I do a bit of thinking about what we're looking at with our businesses now that we both find ourselves with a little time on our hands. One of the tools that Ken has been using is Poindexter to map out what a business model could look like down the road.  Pretty interesting tool to check out. Hope you enjoyed the show this week.  As always we'd love a review in iTunes if you're not too apathetic!

Just as quickly as some things start, they can also end.  The show today is all about a few of updates from us, a few new directions we're taking in our businesses, and lessons we've learned along the way. Nugget saw some fantastic growth in it's initial launch, and was poised to grow quickly as a platform where entrepreneurs can come to find business problems to solve, but also to congregate to talk through what their business problems are, and hopefully how to solve them. After the launch Ken and his cofounder Justin found a few growing pains along the way as the business began to evolve.  A few important lessons came out of this: Alignment of business/personal focus with your cofounder Ensuring the business model is one you want to pursue long term Beginning with the end in mind across all aspects of your business Ken has chosen to step away from Nugget and let Justin run with things from here, and the lessons he learned were valuable and in the grand scheme of things rather painless. He's seeing MastermindJam continue to grow, and is looking at a few new ways to approach the business, and find ways to monetize it outside of the matchmaking service. Craig is now settled(ish) in France and is able to finally start concentrating on work again.  The business has done well over the course of their first 2 weeks in the new house, which is a testament to the systems and processes that he put in place several months ago.  While it doesn't pass the litmus test of taking 2 solid weeks away from the business, overall things are running pretty smoothly. PodcastMotor continues to grow and every month Craig is fine tuning the way the business runs and the end product that customers are getting as a result. We don't talk too much about reviews on the show, but honestly we'd love to hear what you think.  If you're enjoying the show please head over to the ole iTunes and leave us a review.  Would love to hear your thoughts on what we're doing here.

Welcome back! This week Ken gives the latest updates on Nugget, the community that he's been working on with Justin Vincent.   ——— If you enjoyed the show: please, right now, head over to iTunes and leave us a 5-star review. Leave your comments on our site at this episode’s show notes, or send 140 characters of love our way on twitter.

Welcome back! Since you last heard from us, Craig and his family have found themselves in Aix-en-Provence, France, and are absolutely loving it there. Show topics: Ken and Craig debate Ken's newest side project, Nugget, that he's been working on with co-founder Justin Vincent. The importance of choosing the right place to settle down with your family, and what impacts those decisions.   ——— If you enjoyed the show: please, right now, head over to iTunes and leave us a 5-star review. Leave your comments on our site at this episode’s show notes, or send 140 characters of love our way on twitter.

Welcome back! Since you last heard from us, Craig and his family have travelled a bit south in Europe, inching ever closer to the Mediterranean. Craig calls in from Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Show topics: Updates on MastermindJam, PodcastMotor, and Craig's travel niche content businesses. The importance of choosing the right place to settle down with your family, and what impacts those decisions. The benefits of developing a habit of working first thing in the morning when you're travelling for increased freedom of mind.   ——— If you enjoyed the show: please, right now, head over to iTunes and leave us a 5-star review. Leave your comments on our site at this episode’s show notes, or send 140 characters of love our way on twitter.

Welcome back! Since you last heard from us, Craig and his family have begun the first leg of their epic European trip. Craig calls in from Dublin, Ireland. Show topics: Long overdue updates on MastermindJam and PodcastMotor. The importance of choosing the right customers for your business. Craig's tips on traveling through Europe with a young family. Tips on choosing a business that's a good fit for the entrepreneur: scratching your own itch vs. picking a random niche. The benefits of having freedom of time and freedom of mind.   ——— If you enjoyed the show: please, right now, head over to iTunes and leave us a 5-star review. Leave your comments on our site at this episode’s show notes, or send 140 characters of love our way on twitter.

Craig and Ken invite Dave Rodenbaugh from the Rogue Startups Podcast to recap another fantastic MicroConf in Las Vegas. This episode was recorded in a live venue, so please pardon some background noise. In this episode This episode has two parts: Segment 1 (approx. 35mins): Dave, Craig, and Ken recapping MicroConf 2016 Segment 2 (approx. 15mins): Dave, Craig, and Ken welcome special guests Scott Nixon of Happy Herbivore, Einar Vollset of AppAftercare, and acclaimed outreach consultant Kai Davis (Double Your Audience, PodcastOutreach) to discuss our takeaways from this MicroConf. Links and mentions in this show MicroConf MicroConf Europe MicroConf 2016 Speakers MicroConf 2016 Speakers and Talks Des Traynor, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Intercom: Building & Scaling Products (Lessons Learned from 4 Years and 8,000 Customers) Claire Lew, CEO of Know Your Company: An Unconventional Business: 10,000 Users, One-time Pricing, and a Two-Person Team Steli Efti, Founder and CEO of Close.io, Hiten Shah, Founder of Crazy Egg and Kissmetrics: Moderated Question + Answer with The Startup Chat Patrick Campbell, CEO of Price Intelligently: Lessons from the SaaS Metrics of 1500 companies Rob Walling, Co-founder of Drip: The Four Unfair Advantages for Faster SaaS Growth Amir Khella, founder of Keynotopia: Lessons Learned Growing Keynotopia from Zero to 50,000 Customers Tracy Osborn, founder of Wedding Lovely: From Funded to Self-Funded: The Story of WeddingLovely Peter Coppinger, CEO and Founder of Teamwork.com: The Developer CEO Lars Lofgren, Director of Growth at I Will Teach You To Be Rich, Former Director of Growth at KISSmetrics: The Three SaaS Growth Levers that Keep You From Plateauing Attendee Talks The 3 Tactics ConvertKit Used to Add $135,000+ in MRR Since Last MicroConf by Nathan Barry, Founder of ConvertKit How I Took a Productized Service from 0 to $30K MRR in 9 Months by Brian Casel, founder of AudienceOps Lessons Learned from a Year of Product Demos at Drip by Anna Jacobsen, Customer Success Manager, Drip Bootstrappers: How To Get Customers Efficiently With Podcast Tours by Kai Davis Lessons From Manually Onboarding Our First 50 Customers by Ben Orenstein,...

Craig and Ken discuss their goals for MicroConf 2016 in Las Vegas.   ——— If you enjoyed the show: please, right now, head over to iTunes and leave us a 5-star review. Leave your comments on our site at this episode’s show notes, or send 140 characters of love our way on twitter.

Driving traffic to your site is the lifeblood of learning, growing, and optimizing your business. Without it you're really just guessing at what works, what your customers want, and how viable your business really is. Hot off the heels of a mention on Startups For the Rest of Us, Ken is looking to capitalize on some additional traffic to his site.  But will this boost in eyeballs be the thing that takes MastermindJam to a whole new level?  It's a good reminder that traffic is really just the tool that we can use to test, optimize, validate, and improve upon our business.  Without visitors, and their opinions of your value proposition, nothing else really matters. In the coming weeks we're going to dig into some things that we're both doing to drive more traffic to our sites, and how you might be able to implement some of those things too. What traffic generation techniques and strategies have you used successfully?  We find that so many of them are one-time or have to be repeated often.  Building sustainable traffic generation strategies would be really great to incorporate into your business. If you enjoyed the show: please, right now, head over to iTunes and leave us a 5-star review. Leave your comments on our site at this episode’s show notes, or send 140 characters of love our way on twitter.

Craig details the launch of his new course: Epic Podcasting. Craig explains who it's for, what it's about, and the ongoing benefits if you sign up during launch. Craig and Ken discuss the concept of headspace, and how finding ways to have freedom of mind, and freedom of your own thoughts, can benefit your quest for freedom dollars. Mentioned In This Episode Epic Podcasting Course ——— If you enjoyed the show: please, right now, head over to iTunes and leave us a 5-star review. Leave your comments on our site at this episode’s show notes, or send 140 characters of love our way on twitter.

Ken gives updates on lead magnets he is building. Craig talks through his anxiety caused by giving notice at his day job. Mentions Justin Jackson's MegaMaker Challenge with Podcast, Manifesto, Community Craig's EpicPodcasting Course Ken's Fitbit Profile Noah Kagen's Every Tool I Use to Run a 7-Figure Business ——— If you enjoyed the show: please, right now, head over to iTunes and leave us a 5-star review. Leave your comments on our site at this episode’s show notes, or send 140 characters of love our way on twitter.

Shiny object syndrome is a tough thing to overcome, but with the success of our businesses these temptations wane.  Keeping focused on Priority #1 is key to the long term success of any entrepreneurial venture. The big day of going full time on PodcastMotor is coming for Craig and along with that brings all sorts of emotions.  Staying focused at this time is really important.  Failure to do so could mean the demise of his entrepreneurial career even before it really gets started. Ken is looking at diversifying revenue streams within MastermindJam, while keeping an eye on the real job of running the business.  While this could provide for a great opportunity to take the business to the next level it could also mean not really doing anything well. The opportunities and risks are actually similar for them both, but keeping focused on what is really important, what's going to move the business forward, and what is just noise and is acting like a distraction is going to be key over the next few months. Mentions this week Thrive Leads Zippy Courses Restrict Content Pro 7-Figure Businesses through Courses by Derek Halpern The Keyword Shitter Exactly what the name implies. Put a search term/phrase in, it shits out long tail matches. If you enjoyed the show: please, right now, head over to iTunes and leave us a 5-star review. Leave your comments on our site at this episode’s show notes, or send 140 characters our way on twitter.

This week, Craig leads off with updates on PodcastMotor. Craig next delves into the revenue model of the new travel content sites he's acquired. Ad revenue plus affiliate marketing plus advanced audience segmentation equals success. Design your business with the end in mind, and cater to customers that spend money. Ken talks through traffic building and mastermind group tactics. Ken also shares how he's been avoiding joining a mastermind group (the irony is not lost), and what he's re-learning from his latest group. Finally, Craig and Ken say thank you for over a hundred great episodes of Bootstrapped With Kids podcast, which recently posted their final episode. — Mentions in this show: Zero to Scale Podcast Terminus' UTM Email Course Learn the Best Practices for Building UTM Tracking URLs Hiten Shah and Steli Efti: The Startup Chat Podcast Tim Ferris' Podcast Brennan Dunn's Double Your Freelancing Rate Launch Strategy Rob Walling's Drip for Cutting-Edge Email Marketing Automation KingSumo's GiveAways Viral Giveaways Software for sale on FEInternational Pat Flynn's Smart Podcast Player Pat Flynn's Smart Passive Income, Monthly Income Report Instapage | Leadpages | Unbounce Clickfunnels Free copy of Russell Brunson's book, Dotcom Secrets or get it on Amazon Perpetual Traffic Podcast The Art of Paid Traffic Podcast Craig highly recommends WPEngine for WordPress Hosting. Click the link. Sign up! site5 Web Hosting Will This Make The Boat Go Faster [embed]https://youtu.be/lNOQAuMGxBQ[/embed] — If you enjoyed the show: please, right now, head over to iTunes and leave us a 5-star review

Ken and Craig give updates, and look back on progress made in 2015. (Sorry for the sound quality at certain points in the show.) — If you enjoyed the show: please, right now, head over to iTunes and leave us a 5-star review. Leave your comments on our site at this episode’s show notes, or send 140 characters our way on twitter.