Susie Moore entrepreneur, writer and life coach based in New York City. A former sales leader for a Fortune 500 company, she inspires and educates people to live the lives they imagined by tuning in to their authentic power and unlocking the confidence to get what they really, really want.

Beyond her high vibe personality, she’s also a force to be reckoned with as a life coach and business woman. In this interview, you’ll learn more about how Susie manages to be positive and joyful ALL the time, how she’s taken so many risks in her life with grace, how to be more confident, and how to create a profitable side hustle that allows you to live out your purpose.

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Thrive Themes Blazingly fast WordPress templates and plugins, built to get more traffic, more subscribers, more clients and more customers for you.

Other Links:

Five Minutes To Famous

Having A Side Hustle Allowed Susie Moore To Walk Away From A $500K Job (Forbes article)

What If It Does Work Out?: How a Side Hustle Can Change Your Life (book)

How to turn your hobby into a sustainable side hustle (MarketWatch Article)

Paul Jarrett Co-Founded Bulu, Inc. also known by the subscription box name Bulu Box in 2012 (now updated to a white label system). Paul was running in a marathon with his wife and as the volunteers were handing out sample products for them to use along the run, they later realized that there was an opportunity and a market for sending out health products and vitamins to others in a more curated process and collect essential data along the way.

Paul’s work experience spans the country. From NYC to San Francisco, he has launched million dollar brands such as Neebo and executed multi-facted campaigns for Lowe’s and Nike so he understood what it meant to take this subscription box idea to market and quickly began to see success. It also helped that he was Vice President and Board Member of Complete Nutrition which also provided a little insight into the space. He built the Marketing Department, trained dozens of franchises and positioned Complete Nutrition and its products for success in a saturated market.

I enjoyed my conversation with Paul and I hope you do as well and helps you along your journey. In this episode we cover;

• From going to school for journalism to becoming the CEO of an online business
• How Bulu Box works
• How businesses like his is changing the way we shop
• How hard is it for a subscription box company to be backed by VCs (venture capitalist)
• What have been great marketing and business strategies
• Ideas from Birch Box
• Is The Subscription Business Model Taking Over?

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The Beginner’s Guide To Outsourcing Your Business: Find, Hire, and Build Your Team Virtually Today! $2.99 Ebook on Amazon. Step-by-step guide every entrepreneur needs to build his or her business with the asset of working with virtual employees. Focusing on business growth, giving you the time to work less in the business and more time working on the business.

While he was collaborating with La Aurora on his personal cigar, it became clear that Karl wanted to create a place in his hometown where he and his friends and family could enjoy a smoke and fellowship.  That eventually led them to open Legends Cigar and Vape in Ruston, Louisiana, where the family resides.  Building the cigar lounge took three years, and provided an opportunity for his daughter, Kadee, to lead the construction and design effort.

Kadee’s vision was to create a rustic lounge with a spacious, yet cozy atmosphere that had plenty of places to smoke and talk.  She incorporated sports memorabilia and family photos from Karl’s career in basketball and also of the talented family’s various sports accolades.  The shop also celebrates the great state of Louisiana and their beloved hometown of Ruston. As a result of her input and the focused efforts Kadee made through the lounge design and development process, Karl trusted Kadee to take the lead and was ready to hand her the keys. Karl said, “I called her one morning and had her come to the store.  I just said ‘Congratulations, you’re the owner.’” Since then, Kadee has been the driving force behind expanding Legends’ offerings – from cigars to vape, cigar related products, and now CBD. 

Sponsor/Partnership

The Beginner’s Guide To Outsourcing Your Business: Find, Hire, and Build Your Team Virtually Today! $2.99 Ebook on Amazon. Step-by-step guide every entrepreneur needs to build his or her business with the asset of working with virtual employees. Focusing on business growth, giving you the time to work less in the business and more time working on the business.

Have you ever wanted to brew your own beer? YOU CAN BREW IT!

I had the pleasure to have a discussion with Martin Keen on his own brewing journey and his approach to Youtube.  Martin is working to brew all 99 beers in 99 weeks! He has the goods on his channel which offers brew days, see the recipes, and check out the home brew beer tastings.

Homebrewing is still a hobby for Martin who works "9-5" in tech but his operation between the systematic approach of equipment, time spent in brewing, editing and more is almost a nice small business in itself. 

Martin and I discuss;

• His background prior to homebrewing
• A Hobby vs. Business
• The start in homebrewing
• Difference between homebrew and pro brewing?
• Seeing where craft beer and homebrewing has been, where do you see it going?
• Building a homebrewing brand on Youtube
• How others can start in homebrewing 
• and much more

Sponsor/Partnership

The Beginner’s Guide To Outsourcing Your Business: Find, Hire, and Build Your Team Virtually Today! $2.99 Ebook on Amazon. Step-by-step guide every entrepreneur needs to build his or her business with the asset of working with virtual employees. Focusing on business growth, giving you the time to work less in the business and more time working on the business.

Matt Miller, founder of SchoolSpiritVending.com, started this  journey out of desperation to support his family and with just one gumball machine, he quickly scaled to more machines and realized it was a business that could stick. Matt transformed this passive income business into a franchise designed to help schools raise funds they needed as an alternative to some of the traditional ways, installing spirit merchandise vending machines that replaced the need for kid-powered door-to-door fundraising. People began to reach out to Matt on how they could repeat this in their own area.

If you want to learn more about the vending businesses as a source of income...even as a side hustle, tune in to hear Matt’s story. He’ll share his tips on getting started as a franchise owner, partnering with schools, and how parents and kids can learn entrepreneurial skills as a family.

Matt and I cover;

• The story of Matt’s first gumball machine and how he scaled to more.
• Spirit School Vending: The business model and and changing how schools fundraise.
• How the vending machine business can be disruptive and change with tech.
• Investments, costs, margins associated with vending machine
• How Matt sources inventory and stock machines.
• Matt's FREE gift to our listeners below.
• And much more!

FREE Gift! http://ssvbusiness.com/mandm/

As CEO of ReviTrage, Nick is responsible for generating over $10M+ in revenue each month for his clients via digital/social promotion. 

What if I told you that one site alone can make or break your business in many ways. When sites have amazing viral success, it's a great story to share. When they fail, it can hurt for a long time.

Nick shared his successes in broadening his reach through new products and services—not dependent on Google—such as Reddit. Nick has spent a lot of time in what can appear to be a complex but welcoming community and today shares his insight into being a real part of this ever-growing community. Nick and I discuss...

• Revenue generated for his clients and commissions paid to him.
• What Reddit is?
• Success that he's seen on Reddit
• How to get involved in the Reddit community
• The ways smart marketers and freelancers are using Reddit to drive traffic and generate leads
• The differences between “brand platforms” (like Facebook) and “community platforms” like Reddit.
• The types of content that perform best on community platforms.
• and much more!

How can small businesses survive the turbulent times coming ahead in 2020. Businesses across the global have been faced with this very question. Trials and tribulations are nothing new to small businesses but sometimes harder to grasp your mind around when you didn't created the challenges it faces. Other entrepreneurs have been faced with these questions even outside of a pandemic. The only thing you have during a crisis is your conduct during it. I had a chance to talk with Paul Downs who started making custom furniture in 1986, shortly after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in engineering. Downs has only one line on his résumé but has a wide variety of skills gained in thirty years of running his business.

His clients range from individuals and small businesses to Fortune 500 companies, all branches of the military, and foreign governments. Downs lives with his wife and three sons outside of Philadelphia.

In addition to running the business, Paul is a prolific writer. If you felt like your business was about to shut down, could you imagine reaching out to the New York Times with an offer to share the experience with thousands of people? Paul Downs thought it would make for a good story and he wrote for the NYTimes.com for 4-years before writing a “year in the life of my business” book: Boss Life.

You’ve never read a business book like Boss Life. The book quickly joined our list of “must reads” for all current and potential business owners. The work is the most honest and transparent business book that we have ever read and we encourage all of you to read it. If you felt like your business was about to shut down, could you imagine reaching out to the New York Times with an offer to share the experience with thousands of people? Paul Downs thought it would make for a good story and he wrote for the NYTimes.com for 4-years before writing a “year in the life of my business” book: Boss Life.

Sponsor/Partnership:

TubeBuddy’s channel management browser plugin helps content creators, brands, and networks save time and grow their brands directly from within YouTube.

Extra Links:

Paul Downs Forbes articles

Born and raised in Rye, New York, Jeff Amendola moved to North Carolina in 2009. When he arrived in Durham. North Carolina in his search for a career, he became a Durham Police Officer. He never forgot that as a kid, he would often go shopping along Arthur Avenue in the Bronx with his parents and come across a cigar factory where he would watch the torcedors roll cigars and decided to start in the cigar business after starting as a side hustle, he created his own Amendola Family Cigar Brands. He reached out to the cigar makers he’d befriended on Arthur Avenue to design him a signature cigar that he could use at his pop-up cigar events. 

While sitting at a live Watts & Ward event, Jeff and I discuss;

• How he got started in cigars
• Starting young in an "older" industry and creating a brand
• Thoughts around saturation in the cigar market
• How he promotes the brand (online, trade shows, events, etc)
• Favorite Amendola Cigar
• Working with different fillers and wrappers
• U.S Food and Drug Administration (USFDA)  treatment on premium cigars vs. cigarettes.
• Cigars for beginners
• Cuban Cigars and much more!

Other Resources:

• BestCigarPrices.com
• AtlanticCigar.com
• Cigars vs Cigarettes
• Psycology of Cigars(Cigars Daily video)

Sponsor/Partnership

The Beginner’s Guide To Outsourcing Your Business: Find, Hire, and Build Your Team Virtually Today! $2.99 Ebook on Amazon. Step-by-step guide every entrepreneur needs to build his or her business with the asset of working with virtual employees. Focusing on business growth, giving you the time to work less in the business and more time working on the business.

As a youth, Corey Pegues was a criminal. As an adult, he became a high-ranking police officer. Corey, a native of Queens, retired from the NYPD as a deputy inspector in 2013, after twenty-one years of service.

We talk about Corey's life and book Once a Cop: The Street, the Law, Two Worlds, One Man in which he opens up about why he joined the New York Police Department after years as a drug dealer. Corey speaks honestly about the poor choices he made while coming of age in New York City during the height of the crack epidemic. He’s equally candid about why he turned his life around, and takes you inside the NYPD, where he becomes a decorated officer despite bureaucratic pitfalls and discriminatory practices. Written with the voice and panache of someone who knows the streets, Once a Cop is a credible and informative look at the forces that lead some into a life of crime and what it means to make good on a second chance.

Sponsor/Partnership:

Blooom – Your 401k could earn more. Take a minute to link up your 401k to and maximize your investments. For $10/ month, we manage your nest egg so you can enjoy life.

I had the pleasure of joining my friend Robert Glover aka as Brix of Brix Fitness on his podcast where we talked about mental health. Rob has joined this podcast in the past to talk about his journey into becoming a very successful YouTuber and businessman and he’s shared some of his struggles on his platform along the way.
Mental Health has been thankfully and increasingly growing topic in the world and especially in the entrepreneur community and more. How does your work and ambition influence your mental state?

In this episode, Rob and I openly tackle this sensitive but needed discussion from the viewpoint of business owners, but really look at in a way that is relatable for almost anyone. Rob and I discuss our own struggles and experiences with anxiety (mine), depression (his) and then go on to unpack some of the ways they each manage these challenges.

We also talk about breaking the stigma and finding ways to be great along the way.. This is one of the least business-centered episodes of the show, but you don’t want to miss this one.

Article published in Feedfront Magazine: Mentally Breaking Down Your Hustle

Other Resources mentioned in the show:

Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi (book)

The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor (book)

Choosing To Cheat by Andy Stanley (book)

Sponsor/Partnership

Dapper Black Box is the first and only subscription service for the conscious gentleman. Get monthly deliveries of 3-4 fashionable accessories (e.g. ties, socks, lapel pins, etc.) and toiletries (e.g. moisturizers and oils) at only $28/month (retail up to $70). Committed to providing different items from different black-owned brands each month. Free shipping within the US. Use the Code: DBBXBLK to Get 20% off TODAY!

As a longtime film and TV producer, Cheryl Miller Houser has become used to the fact that each production becomes its own business enterprise and creating her own company Creative Breed made it a natural investment to follow 6 (8 total including partners) young entrepreneurs in Detroit trying to find their footing in the documentary that I found on Netflix called ‘Generation StartUp‘.

Generation Startup takes us to the front lines of entrepreneurship in America, capturing these entreprenuer’s stories. This film that Cheryl and Co-Directed with Academy Award winner Cynthia Wade celebrates risk-taking, urban revitalization, and diversity while delivering a vital call-to-action—with entrepreneurship at a record low, the country’s economic future is at stake.

Cheryl also tells her story of stepping out and creating her own company  which was designed to create emotionally engaging content that inspires people to think, feel and take action like this. The goal is to share masterful story-telling across all media/multi-platforms.

We also discuss Detroit’s rise a bit more in a blog post you should check out called More than Profit

Sponsor/Partnership
Thrive Themes Blazingly fast WordPress templates and plugins, built to get more traffic, more subscribers, more clients and more customers for you.

Additional Links

Venture for America

Women Rising

michipreneur

Detroit Is Beckoning to Tech Entrepreneurs

• • Start in Journalism
  • The beginning of working @ Black Enterprise
  • His First assignment (story)
  • Remembering Reginald F. Lewis
  • The shift in media
  • Black Enterprise stake in events
  • The Grown Zone
  • and much more….

Other Resources:

I Am College Material!: Your Guide to Unlimited College, Career, and Life Success

Deal of the year – Reginald F. Lewis (Black Enterprise article)

Sponsor/Partnership

Blooom – Your 401k could earn more. Take a minute to link up your 401k to and maximize your investments. For $10/ month, we manage your nest egg so you can enjoy life.

The story of how Jack Daniel's began his distillery through the help of an enslaved African-American, Nearest Green is no longer an open "secret". Fawn Weaver, Owner and CEO was in Singapore and read a New York Time article written by Clay Risen (who has some amazing articles btw) that forever changed Fawn's life and the landscape of the whisky industry. Fawn is an American investor, historian, relationship blogger, and best-selling author. Seems it was destiny for her to share Nearest Green's story.

Jack Daniel was apprenticed in his youth to a Tennessee-based Lutheran preacher, grocer, and distiller named Dan Call. Green was a master distiller who was also owned by Call. Green would go on to teach Jack Daniel everything he knew about the art of distillation and the operation of a whiskey still.

Though Jack publicly praised his mentor, the brand that lived on long after ignored him. Green was written out of the Jack Daniel’s brand backstory—even though he was mentioned in Daniel’s official biography over 50 times. Fawn uncovered thousands of documents, traced Daniel and Green’s histories and came to a formal conclusion—with the help of a couple of members of Green’s lineage and supporting documents: Nathan Green, once freed, was the first master distiller of the Jack Daniel’s brand and the first African-American known to do it.

Other Resources:

The Story of Nearest Green