Jen Du doesn’t hate Mondays anymore... She hates Fridays! She’s never felt more excited to start her workday…ever.
Why? Jen is the creator of ‘Before’ Elixir, an innovative, all-natural tonic preventing the flush and hangovers resulting from drinking alcohol.
Believe it or not, she actually developed the idea during a Business School project. During 2013, while a business student at Rutgers, Jen participated in a workshop called ‘Lean Startup Machine’. As part of her project, she surveyed hundreds of people and found an overwhelming need in the market for a product just like Before Elixir. To her surprise, not only did she win the competition but she did so with stellar reviews and overwhelming advice to make the product a reality.
Since her plan was always to work at a tech company or in consulting, she put the idea on the back burner. Not for long, though! It was in just her first year at Dell that she got serious about creating the formula and seeking funding. She attended a lot of events, including a meet-up called Co-Founders Austin, a networking event for local people involved in startups. The idea behind Co-Founders Austin is to connect sole-founders with partners who are experts in the areas they need help in. She was looking for a biochemist, and through this group, she was connected to a local angel investor who is a big philanthropist when it comes to entrepreneurship and science.
And with that investment, she was able to start her R&D! She literally made several variations of the elixir and sent them in tiny test bottles to friends, family and literally anyone who was willing to try the product. The overwhelming response was positive and her next step was finding a manufacturing company that made the elixir taste good.
In 2015, she launched Before Elixir through a crowd-funding campaign to finance a full run of the product for sale to the public. She surpassed her goal, with 110% funded and $14,000 in the bank. With those funds she was able to make changes to the taste, the packaging, some of the ingredients, and continues to find ways to improve with each manufacturing run.
Within just the past year, she has gotten Before Elixir into 8 stores in Austin, including a full-service grocery popular in Austin, called Wheatsville. In the first week there, she sold 150 bottles, coming out as the #13 most popular drink out 200+ beverages they stock!
Before Elixir has also acquired Australian distribution and is currently available in 17 countries worldwide. 2016 sees Before Elixir launching on Amazon, and a push to get in even more stores in Texas as well as a drive to reach shelves in California, where currently 40% of their internet sales are generated. In just the first year of business, Before Elixir has received outstanding press from Food & Wine, GQ, Mashable, The Guardian, Bustle, Product Hunt, Brit+Co just to name a few.
On a personal note, Jen has just launched a new site, called The Fierce Founder, where she shares her personal journey of starting her first company, including all the highs and the lows, and what it takes to be a fierce female entrepreneur. Her goal is to share as much as she can to help others accomplish something they’ve never done before.
If you’re listening to the nay-sayers, you’re limiting yourself. You have to throw that fear of failure and judgment out the window to get what you want in life. If you want to feel inspired, and learn how to have your personality shine out to the world through your brand, this episode of The Bold Life Movement with Jen Du is a must.
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
DON'T STOP HERE...
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Anton Kraly is the epitome of a lifestyle entrepreneur. His online business and community, Dropship Lifestyle, is his passion and he’s managed to create a lucrative business around running his own dropshipping e-commerce stores and teaching thousands of other entrepreneurs how to do the same.
Having had several e-commerce businesses that were successful, Anton set out to look for something new. Inspired by Tim Ferriss’ book, ‘The 4 Hour Workweek’, he wanted something that could achieve a little more on auto-pilot. So, he started a drop-shipping business, but he ran up against roadblocks when he was looking for guidance and advice online. He couldn’t find anyone who was doing the same thing who also knew what they were talking about. In fact, had he taken some of the advice thrown around out there, it would have destroyed him.
Instead, he found himeself learning it all on his own and becoming a thought leader in the space. Eventually, he decided to take his information and turn it into an online course and forum, and Dropship Lifestyle was born!
On his website, clients get access to his course as well as the community, so users can ask each other questions. In fact, so many people have built successful businesses using his course that they can actually run the community almost themselves and he rarely even has to moderate or facilitate. That leaves him the time to build out more functional assets for his clients, such as his own Shopify app that automates order-processing, ‘store-front’ fully-customizable templates, and he’s currently working on a Niche Finder app.
His goal is to create the only apps any of his users will ever need to run their own successful ecommerce stores. Dropship Lifestyle’s success has also spun off into some other successful businesses, such as his supplier directory site, live events, and a $100K+ sub-forum for the best-performing sellers.
His goal for 2016 is to grow his community even bigger. There are several clients in the community doing things he didn’t even anticipate when he first put the course out there and he sees what a big impact it has on people’s lives. So, Anton has made the commitment to spend about $30-$50K per month in paid advertising to widen the net and reach more people. He will be building another site this year that shows exactly what that kind of advertising ‘spend’ looks like and how to track it, etc., as another teaching outlet.
Anton and I chat today about his mindset shift from traditional business to online business, why Saigon has been such a lucrative homebase the past few years, and what he sees for the future of Dropship Lifestyle.
The only difference between those who are successful and those who are still waiting is a higher tolerance for risk. Anton has proven his ability to embrace risk and this boldness has served him well.
His enthusiasm for living ‘the lifestyle’ is contagious! He simply loves what he does and isn’t afraid to try new things. Join us for this motivating and fun interview!
Additional Resources:
Trey Stinnett, creator of the ‘Self-Hacker Journey’ lives a life of creation every day. He is here with us today to talk about what that really means and his mission to help others find their true happiness.
As with most entrepreneurs, Trey’s path has been a bumpy one. At just 21 years old, he was a millionaire real estate investor. Getting hit by the economic fall-out was just one loss; at the same time he lost close family members and his wife had a miscarriage. He went into a deep state of reflection and ultimately realized that when happiness is based on ‘results’ in your life, that is a very fragile sort of happiness. He started crawling out of the mire and recreating himself.
It has been 12 years now that he’s been on a path of self-development and raising his consciousness. He’s now constantly and radically happy about his life. His mission is to help as many people as he can to reach what he has attained-to be in a state of creation, to be living in each moment to manifest the desires of your heart.
Trey’s work is all about shifting paradigms to create breakthroughs in our life. Paradigms are the belief systems we have, what we believe about the world and our place in it. The first thing we can do to start this shift is understand that we are not defined by personality types, right and left brain thinking, masculine/feminine energy. All of these things are dynamic and changeable. They are relevant, but not permanent. They do not define us. We define us.
Trey has spent years studying the great thought leaders of almost every discipline. When he first started teaching others, he was imparting all of this information in the way he learned it. Today, his Breakthrough Formula Program focuses instead on creating the framework to clear your past so you can start living in the moment, no matter what kind of moment life happens to be throwing at you. He is also currently at work on ‘Limitless’, a series of in-person events that will be going live in the second half of 2016.
Trey and I talk today about breaking through self-limiting beliefs, not judging ourselves and our past, how he is trying to impart ‘living in creation’ philosophy to his daughters, and the underlying passion in everything he does.
So many of us get in our own way by doing what we’ve always done. We try and shove more in to make ourselves ‘better’ instead of doing the work of clearing out to start anew. It’s bold to embrace a willingness to change, and to do what doesn’t come natural. But it opens you up to new worlds and possibilities. Join us today for this inspiring and thought-provoking interview with Trey Stinnett!
Conferences:
Jenn Gietzen is the creative mind behind Write On! Design, her personal brand, and NovaElle, a partnership created with her friend and professional photographer, Jane.
After graduating from the Art Institute of Atlanta in 2008, Jenn went straight into the corporate world where she did graphic design for about 4 years. She later switched careers into a recruiting role, and while she liked it, she realized it just wasn’t fulfilling in the way that she needed it to be and was actually considering alternatives when the company laid her off.
This shocking news was actually a blessing in disguise and just a few weeks later, she met Ginny Branch, a prop stylist and ended up learning under her for many months. By assisting Ginny on shoots, Jenn was introduced to the creative community in Atlanta.
She networked heavily and eventually started using her graphic design interests and hand-lettering skills to redesign websites and later started her own company, penning unique quotes on merchandise. She started selling through a few shops but that became difficult and not cost-effective considering the time it requires to produce unique, one-of-a-kind pieces. Now, her focus is on larger scale custom projects having recently done work for Home Depot and French Connection.
Jenn’s newest project, NovaElle, which she started with friend and photographer, Paige Jones is a charitable endeavor which partners with organizations world wide who aim to support women. Merchandise sold through Novaelle features Jenn’s artwork and proceeds benefit initiatives all over the world that empower women and teach them valuable skills to excel in life. Their mission is to support programs that promote education, development or safety. For example an upcoming donation will benefit an organization rescuing victims from sex trafficking in Nepal.
In this episode, Jenn and I have a heart-felt and honest conversation about moving forward even when you have no emotional support, and how the freedom to be creative and create her own circumstances propels her forward.
If you’re complacent and without fear, you’re not moving forward. Being BOLD is all about pushing through the fear even when you can’t predict the outcome!
Jenn’s Website, Write On! Design: www.jenngietzen.com
Jenn’s Instagram: www.instagram.com/JennGeitzen
Jenn’s Twitter: www.twitter.com/jenngietzen
NovaElle: www.novaelle.org
NovaElle’s Instagram: www.instagram.com/shopnovaelle
NovaElle’s Twitter: www.twitter.com/shopnovaelle
Additional Resources Mentioned:
EventBrite: www.eventbrite.com
It’s a very interesting, transitional time to be a woman in business and Jane Claire Hervey is dedicated to riding the tide to female empowerment, greatness and success.
Jane is the founder and CEO of BossBabesATX, a local community of female entrepreneurs and creatives in the Austin area, which actually went viral when it launched in May 2015.
Discouraged by a lack of available mentors who could help Jane and her friends, all successful recent college graduates with their own businesses, they were inspired to put together a small informal group of women who might also be feeling the same way. To gauge interest and gain a better understanding of what this group could provide, Jane conducted interviews with other women in the community. She picked up on a lot of general distrust; these women didn’t feel they had a ‘safe’ place to go to grow and develop without competition, a place where they could openly support one another.
From these interviews and Jane’s own beliefs in supporting women in their creative interests and business endeavors, BossBabesATX was formed. She completely fleshed out everything before ‘going public’ and having their first meeting. The idea skyrocketed!! Overnight, they went from 10 RSVP’s to 550 and by the end of the weekend, the invite had over 90 RSVPs.
While she believed their first get-together would be small and casual, it drew so much interest and participation that it ended up being the first iteration of what is now a standard BossBabeATX “meet” consisting of hundered of women in the community. Since then, BossBabesATX has continued to grow and more attention than Jane and her friends ever imagined.
Jane credits some of the success of the community to the pillars of branding laid out well before the first meetup. She shares what these pillars are, and why having your mission statement so clearly defined saves you in times of rapid growth. With so many decisions to make and so much feedback coming in, understand the core vision for the company allows you to stay on track and continue serving the community in a really powerful way.
Finally, we chat about her childhood experiences and how they’ve made her so strong as a woman who believes in justice and equality, why she welcomes being challenged and having the ‘hard’ conversations, and why she believes ‘working for free’ is a completely skewed way of having a real sharing economy.
Jane believes that whatever you do, be authentic and aware. Being BOLD and making an impact requires you to admit your shortcomings, genuinely step out, and engage with your community. Come join us for this exciting, powerful and honest interview with Jane Claire Hervey!
Instagram and Twitter: @BossBabesATX
Taylor Pearson is the innovative mind behind ‘The End of Jobs’, a new book that focuses on the rise of entrepreneurship and why it’s a better career choice for today.
Taylor doesn’t consider his path from software developer to self-published author a complete transition. Instead, he’s always thought of his career and life in terms of trajectory, always improving and accelerating to the next level. That’s not to say that he wasn’t a little bit nervous about putting pen to paper! But, he’d prepared himself and felt reasonably confident enough to go ahead and give it a try.
Turns out, he’s pretty great at it. Taking inspiration from the book, ‘The 12 Week Year’, Taylor spent only 9 months on ‘The End of Jobs’, and it has been incredibly successful, quickly rising to the top of Amazon’s business category.
Despite the book’s title, it is not a blueprint on how to immediately quit your ‘day job’ and start your own business. Instead, the premise of the book looks at the four distinct economic phases that the West has experienced and why entrepreneurship is such a great choice. It’s more of a thought process rather than an ‘action list’. So many of us have been trained to follow certain professional scripts but entrepreneurship puts you in charge of writing your own script. That means everyone from the established business owner to the employee can embody the principles of entrepreneurship; it’s about a creativity mindset, a new way of thinking about work and a new view way of viewing the world.
Taylor and I sit down today to chat about lessons he learned during his book launch and how becoming an author has opened new doors for him and broadened his view on what is possible.
Many of us have an internal force, a resistance, that holds us back from ourselves. Going to war with that resistance, driving ourselves forward every day, is BOLD! Sit down, take a listen and get inspired by this episode of the Bold Life Movement with Taylor Pearson!
www.taylorpearson.me/jesusmarketing
https://www.facebook.com/taylor.pearson.904?fref=ts
Twitter: www.twitter.com/TaylorPearsonMe
The End of Jobs: www.amazon.com/The-End-Jobs-9-5/dp/1619613352
The 12 Week Year: www.12weekyear.com/book-info
The War of Art: www.amazon.com/The-War-Art-Steven-Pressfield-ebook/dp/B007A4SDCG
Ray Dalio Principles: www.bwater.com/Uploads/FileManager/Principles/Bridgewater-Associates-Ray-Dalio-Principles.pdf
Anti-Fragile: www.amazon.com/Antifragile-Things-That-Disorder-Incerto/dp/0812979680
From struggling DJ to successful business owner, John Ban's entrepreneurial journey is inspiring to watch.
John, AKA 'Sonic', is one-half of the team behind Grass Fed Coffee- the first prepackaged butter coffee to hit market. Popular among entrepreneurs and productivity and health nuts, Grass Fed Coffee is going to revolutionize the bulletproof coffee scene.
Like so many entrepreneurs, John has had a succession of successful businesses, but as a former top DJ in Indianapolis, he didn't plan on the journey that led him to Grass Fed Coffee. In fact, you might even say that had he not experienced a major setback in the music business, he wouldn't be in the beverage industry today.
In 2007, John moved to Los Angeles to pursue music writing and recording. Unfortunately, this was just about the time the recession started and work was really hard to come by. He was eating ramen and living in a studio apartment with 2 other people! Influenced by the food truck culture, he went back to Indianapolis to start the first food truck in that city, West Coast Tacos. It was a huge success, and later he sold his stake and went on to create NY Slice food truck. The success of which led to expansion, and now a booming Indy food truck scene.
After selling NY Slice, He ended up selling that business and came back to L.A. to work with his mentor, now partner, on developing Grass Fed Coffee. They started implementing the idea in 2014, with the help of a beverage consulting company. In December 2015, they launched their Kickstarter campaign.
It took off like wildfire, meeting 170% of the goal within the first month. The campaign will end at the end of January 2016 and shipments will start going out to backers and become available for retail sale on their website.
As with any new idea, John did hit some roadblocks and fits and starts in the development of Grass Fed Coffee, but he's had a very strong sense of willpower and positive mindset since he was a child. Any business owner knows there are a lot of obstacles at the beginning of any project but when you break them, there's no stopping you.
John and I talk about the lessons he's learned about himself and others from his first food truck business to now, what it means to always have integrity, and his belief that we shouldn't be living our lives constrained by something as simple as money.
On this journey we call entrepreneurship, people will tell you your ideas are crazy and that you're going to fail. Don't believe them.
Always be yourself and have confidence in who you are!
Some questions I ask:
In This Episode, You Will Learn:
Don't Stop Here...