What I Wish I’d Known Before Starting My Business (FS016)

Some of our favorite indie entrepreneurs share their most important mistakes and lessons learned.

Flailing around, blindly trying this and that, praying and hoping for some traction.

That’s how I started my first businesses as a solo entrepreneur. That’s how many of us do it.

If you’d like to save yourself years of trial and error, listen carefully to this episode. We each share our answers to the question: what do you wish you would have known before you got started?

Through Caleb’s story you hear about going too deep too quick. Through Corbett’s story you learn his product/audience tip. From my story you hear about b*ttholes (and, weirdly, it ends up being a really important lesson… Corbett’s favorite part, in fact).

And we pepper the responses from some of our favorite solo entrepreneurs throughout to add a bit more flavor.

This is a good one. You’re gonna like it.

I am hesitant to say, ‘Follow your passion,’ because I don’t believe in that. It has to be something that you are also good at and that the world finds valuable.”

Jeffrey Veen

Show Notes

The bulletin board in my home office (as well as the setup for recording the new podcast song).

Jeffrey Veen on The Great Discontent – the picture and guy we discuss in detail at the beginning. Highly recommend this conversation with Jeffrey Veen, Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin.

Jamaican Dance Hall Music. 😐

Alan Watts on Buddhism on passions – “I promise to abstain from exploiting my passions.” Makes me think of my internet douchebaggery… wherein I try to ‘hack’ a passion to ‘turn’ a buck and ‘jack’ a profit.

Fred Wilson on TWiST – a great interview about business, entrepreneurship, angel investing, etc.

The Focus Factor™ – “I recently finished a project. I worked hard on it. I’m proud of myself and my team. But the most important thing about it was surprising. Watch the video and let me explain.”

Johnny Rzeznik – I couldn’t pick just one image. It’s all too great. More “z” in his name than you thought, right? And here’s the critically acclaimed music video from their chart-topping, heart-throbbing hit Iris. (how dizzy do you think he is spinning around that room like that?)

Top 10 Mistakes in Starting an Online Business – “Newbies love to know which mistakes are common so they can avoid them. Veterans love to talk about things they wish they had known or had done differently.”

Right now it costs $1 to join Fizzle. It’s worth it for the brand new Choosing A Topic course alone.

How The Wrong Metric Sinks Your Business (& How The Right One Saves It) (FS011) – “There are metrics that matter A TON in your business. However, you might be making critical errors about which ones matter and which do not.”

“Aw, that was deep” – The Official™ Caleb “Wahgick” Wojcik SoundByte.

CB’s Final Words.

Guest Answerers

• Paul Jarvis | Web designer and author.
• Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income
• Derek Halpern of Social Triggers
• Natalie Sisson — Digital Marketing and Social Media Made Easy
• Steve Kamb of Nerd Fitness
• Adam Baker of Man vs Debt
• Mark Hellweg of Clive Coffee
• Barrie Davenport
• Brett Kelly of Evernote Essentials
• How The Wrong Metric Sinks Your Business (& How The Right One Saves It) (FS011)