Today's Business Leaders With Gabe Arnold

As a child, Aaron Muller began a business catching shrimp. While this business venture wasn’t the most profitable and possibly had a negative impact on public health, this was his introduction to entrepreneurship. Since then, Aaron has learned a lot and has tried his hand at running a variety of businesses. These days Aaron owns several businesses, including a business brokerage and a successful consulting academy. Aaron took the time to talk about his experiences with business, his tips for spotting a good deal when buying a company and more.   Learning on the Fly Aaron has always worked, and as he finished high school, he knew college wasn’t for him. Instead, Aaron purchased a retail business and ran it for several years. During this time, he learned a lot about running a business. Aaron ended up selling a profitable business he was tired of in order to help bail out the failing retail business, and invest in a new business. A business broker helped guide him through these transactions, and this set Aaron o

Mary Cravets is a very impatient person, and this trait has pushed her to continually move forward and find something better. This trait has even pushed her to start her own business. Mary started out as a realtor and tried her hand at direct sales before launching her own VA business, which she eventually left to become a business advisor. In this episode of Today’s Business Leaders, Mary shares her journey and experiences and explains the one thing that can quickly kill a business. Trusting Her Instinct While running her VA business, Mary found herself continually at odds with her clients. Customers would request something, and Mary would offer advice about a better solution or strategy to achieve their objective. More often than not, the customers would essentially ignore her input, and tell her just to do what they wanted. Mary assumed that as business owners, her clients knew what they were doing, so she didn't question them further. In most instances, Mary was right and had her customers heeded h

For many years, David Jardine was able to identify what he did not want to do before eventually, he found what he was interested in and passionate about. David shares his journey and his experiences, as well as his thoughts on theology with Gabe for this most recent episode of Today’s Business Leaders. Finding His Way Out of high school, David ended up landing a job manufacturing parts for potbelly stoves. The work was extremely monotonous, and after a few short hours, David realized this wasn’t what he wanted. He stuck it out for several weeks before he just couldn’t do it anymore, and then he left to go to university. After completing three years of school, David realized his options were limited. He could go on to teach, or he could try his luck at being an artist. He decided to reinvent himself once again, and he enrolled in a community college where he learned to program. Four months in, David had learned how to create a basic webpage. At this point, he reached out to Mel Emory, who ran a direct marketin

Erin Pheil never had a groundbreaking moment hustling candy as a child or a desire to be her own boss that lead her to become an entrepreneur, but here she is. Upon entering the workforce, Erin had no luck landing a job, so she took her degree in digital media, and in 2002 she started her own agency. As Erin explains, “I realized nobody is hiring me. I can do so much better than all of them. I’m just gonna do this myself. It wasn’t this long drive that I always knew. I just decided I was going to do this.” From the Golden Age to the Black Period The agency took off, and business was growing each year. Despite this success, Erin constantly had this nagging thought that something was missing. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but she knew there was something more. Everything was turned upside down in 2015. The agency suffered a negative SEO attack, and Erin’s health began to deteriorate. None of the medical professionals Erin visited were able to figure out the problem. Erin came full circle and decided to fix

Jessica Olbin loves chaos and figuring out how to put the pieces together to create something great. This personality trait, along with her vast knowledge, experience and confidence put her on an entrepreneurial path towards success. In this episode of Today’s Business Leaders, Jessica shares her story and loads of actionable advice. Finding Her Purpose Jessica’s journey did not start out with entrepreneurial aspirations. “I was in corporate America for a good 15 years. I was a general manager, managing employees, business, multimillion-dollar businesses, and I hated my life. It was ridiculous, and I couldn’t be me. I had to be someone else, and that was okay. I was successful,” Jessica explains. After the birth of her daughter, Jessica took the opportunity to make her exit and became a stay-at-home mom. About six months into her new normal, she realized something was missing from her life. Jessica enjoyed being a mom, but she had all of these skills that she wasn’t able to use. A fateful massage changed ev

From music to bagels to helming a successful podcast, David Wolf has run a variety of vastly different businesses. Along the way, he has learned a lot, and he recently shared his entrepreneurial story with his old friend and fellow podcaster, Gabe, in this latest installment of Today’s Business Leaders.Trial by FireDavid ran a music company before deciding to completely change course and work at a bakery run by his family. By the time David started working at the family bagel business, the company was in a dire state and had declared bankruptcy. David helped the business navigate through bankruptcy court and worked to turn things around. While there was some level of success, ultimately David reached the end of the line with the bagel business. After eight years, with no money left to invest into the business, David filed bankruptcy and started the search for his next adventure.Small Biz AmericaDavid realized he had all of this experience from his time running the bagel business, and he decided to put his

Jesse Miller realized as a teenager that he was wired differently from everyone else and he wanted to do things his way and be a business owner. During a recent interview, Jesse explains how he turned his traumatic early childhood experiences into motivation to move forward and drive him to where he is today. Born to be an Entrepreneur Early in his career, Jesse held several jobs, and at each, he worked directly with the business owners. Through this experience, Jesse learned firsthand the ins and outs of running a business. “I looked at that theme, and it was always that I was working directly with a business owner and I got to understand what makes a business work and what makes a business fail. That, in a nutshell, is what got me to where I am today,” Jesse explains. Simple Concept Jesse took the leap and bought an existing business in 2005. In one year, he doubled the business. He admits this took a lot of hard work, but more importantly, he focused on the simple stuff, and he realized the simple stuff

Les Cowie has had a long and varied career, and along the way, he has learned many valuable lessons in entrepreneurship. He spoke to Gabe about these lessons and his experiences for this most recent episode of Today’s Business Leaders. Starting Out In his late twenties, Les had a great job, and things were going really well. A family tragedy changed this momentum, and Les moved his wife and children out of Johannesburg. As per his wife’s suggestion, Les took the skill and knowledge he had from his previous job and got into multimedia training. Les learned a lot during this first go at video training, and he was able to perfect the process going forward. At this point, Les learned what he deems the first lesson of entrepreneurship: build it once, sell it many times over. Stay True to Your Calling Throughout his career, Les continued to learn more lessons about entrepreneurship. As he changed jobs and continents, Les found new ways to assetize his products to build his business. He also soon realized that cash

Eric Schudiske took everything he learned during the 12 years he worked as a reporter and launched his own public relations firm. He shares his story, along with plenty of actionable and valuable advice with Gabe for this installment of Today’s Business Leaders. Crossing the Finish Line Looking back, Eric is able to make connections between his job as a reporter and being an entrepreneur. In both instances, he had to deliver, but now he delivers for himself, instead of a boss. When working as an employee or an entrepreneur, there are deadlines that one way or another, must be met. Whether it is making his slot as a reporter, or helping his clients tell their story, failure is not an option. “You have a finish line and you’re going to cross it even if you have to drag everyone across with you. Having that mindset translated well into what I do now,” Eric explains. Following Passion Eric’s career led him to working at a PR firm, but it wasn’t where he wanted to be. When an opportunity to go out on his own cam

After being let go from a job, Marisa Cali was essentially forced into entrepreneurship, and several years later she wouldn’t have it any other way. For this installment of Today’s Business Leaders, Marisa talks to Gabe about mistakes she made early on, how she responds when she receives ‘no’ as an answer, the value of referrals and more.Prioritizing Creative TimeInitially, Marisa was so caught up in working for her clients that she neglected her own marketing. She has now learned the importance of working on her own business and allowing herself the time she needs to be creative. “If you’re a creative person, it’s good to have that time [to create]. I think entrepreneurs are naturally creative, and sometimes our best ideas come to us at the most random times, so it’s good for us to make sure we fulfill that part of our being,” explains Marisa.Finding Her NicheMarisa was drawn to social media marketing and shortly landed a job handling the social accounts for a local soccer team. During her tenure with the te

After working a corporate job, Ian Healey realized he actually didn’t want everything he had been working towards. He was sitting in a cubicle and miserable, so it was time for a change. In this installment of Today’s Business Leaders, Gabe chats with Ian about the draw of positive energy, the benefits of shifting perspective, why you need to just show up and more. California Dreaming Ian realized he is too creative to sit in a box and do whatever he was told to do, so he picked up and moved to California with friends. After arriving, Ian realized the energy in California breeds creativity and collaboration. Ian has learned to balance his new dreamy California lifestyle with his hustle work ethic. Since settling in on the West Coast, Ian has started several businesses, but he is passionate about one in particular. Getting Back What You Put Out Ian has worked with mentors and gained valuable insight that has helped him learn and grow. He even points out that he is still learning and Ian plans to always keep

Danny Veiga wasn’t always sure what he wanted to do for a living, but he knew he wanted to work for himself. He went from being a self-declared job junkie, working 22 jobs between the ages of 16 - 22, to now running his own agency and helping others through a series of courses and coaching. Learning from Experiences Danny tried his hand at a variety of work-from-home jobs and began to pick up freelance web design jobs. He didn’t always enjoy the work, but he gained lots of valuable experience, and the exposure these jobs gave him has served him well with his own business. Finding the Reward in Risk A series of family setbacks and a couple of cross-country moves caused Danny to lose all his clients on more than one occasion. However, he hustled and worked and always rebuilt. When Danny realized it was time for a change, he took the arguably risky move of dropping his clients to start over. “Most people don’t want to take those risks, but those risks are going to allow you to propel your business in whatever

Ben Matteucci started a successful marketing agency and is now making it on his own terms. He recently spoke to Gabe about how he navigated his way into entrepreneurship, the reward of planning a successful event, the three E’s of creating quality video content and more, for this episode of Today’s Business Leaders. Finding a Better Way Ben was working his way up in a successful job, but he decided he wanted to be in control of his destiny, so he quit his job and started selling door-to-door. Through this adventure, Ben learned a lot about sales and himself, and this simple act of quitting his job put him on a path towards success. “I was tired of spending my time to make money, so I wasn’t enjoying what I was doing, and there wasn’t really an opportunity for growth. I didn’t want to go to school - I didn’t have any passion for it. I wanted to go and make money the way I wanted to do it, which was selling,” Ben explains. Creating Opportunity While recovering from an accident, Ben was unable to knock on door

Jeet Banerjee is back to share more actionable advice and in-depth information about his entrepreneurial journey for this latest installment of Today’s Business Leaders. Jeet was featured in an earlier episode and shared a broad overview of his career to date. This go around, Jeet focuses more on the process of launching a company. Riding High on Success By age 21, Jeet had launched several successful businesses which were generating revenue, and he even sold one of these businesses. When his next idea came around, Jeet decided that instead of playing things cautiously, fleshing out his client profile and bootstrapping his budget, he would go all in and invest $50,000 to get his venture started. “I was very lucky, and I was riding that cloud of being successful and achieving this stuff. I had just sold a company prior to starting this one, so I had a good amount of cash, and I just felt cocky and arrogant, and I thought anything I touched I could make happen,” Jeet explains. Finding Value in Failure This pa

Upon reflecting on when he knew he was an entrepreneur, Akbar Sheikh joked that he was brainwashed by his father into becoming an entrepreneur. The way of the entrepreneur is the only way he knew, so he was destined to take that path. During a recent chat with Gabe, Akbar reflects on his entry into entrepreneurship and shares some very insightful comments along with plenty of actionable advice for this episode of Today’s Business Leaders. Finding His Way One of the reasons Akbar became an entrepreneur is because after applying everywhere, he could never get a job. He owned a car dealership for a while and eventually found his way helping other entrepreneurs scale their businesses. He now understands that in order to succeed at business you need to feel passionate about that business. “You have to enjoy the business you are in. I think a lot of people give up on it because they are in the wrong business,” says Akbar. Control Your Circle of Influence With so much noise, it can be hard to know who to let in an

While in college, Scott Theaman was introduced to network marketing and this experience opened his eyes to entrepreneurship. For the next two years, as Scott sold energy drinks, he learned a lot about sales and met many great people. After school, Scott moved on to other forms of sales before eventually landing to Internet marketing. Scott shares his story, along with loads of actionable advice with Gabe for this episode of Today’s Business Leaders. Manifesting Success Scott always wanted to be successful, and he has continually worked hard and learned from his experiences to make his own success. After walking away from a lucrative network marketing model, in which Scott had 1,100 distributors, he moved on to selling solar panels and ended up selling water filtration systems. During this time, Scott was able to fine-tune his sales skills. However, he noticed several friends who were using online marketing to boost their sales. The Pull of Internet Marketing At this time, Scott was unfamiliar with Internet

For many years Amy Smith juggled two drastically different jobs: her ‘real’ job as a nurse and a side gig designing websites. For ten years she was caught between both, and while she liked her nursing job, she was passionate about design. At the beginning of the year, she decided it was finally time to take her design job fulltime, and she hasn’t looked back since. The Struggle is Real Amy enjoyed photography, but her mother insisted she take the more traditional path of going to school and earning a degree, so she did. Amy earned a degree and worked as a nurse. All along, on the side, she continued to work on photography and got into design. For many years, Amy struggled with the decision to leave her job and focus exclusively on her side gig, partly due to guilt that she was going against her mother’s wishes. Amy also worried about the prudence of basically throwing away her nursing training and certification in order to pursue a field in which she had no formal education. Amy has not regretted the decision

After working several corporate jobs, Jaime Jay decided it was time for a change and that the entrepreneurial lifestyle was the way to go. Since then, Jaime has launched several successful businesses and is even on the verge of closing one down in order to pursue more profitable opportunities. For this installment of Today’s Business Leaders, Jaime speaks with Gabe about the gut-wrenching decision to close down a business, the acronym he uses to concentrate and how to unravel the mystery around knowing when to hire staff. Finding His Way Jaime started out selling golf balls and lemonade as a kid. As a young adult, he got off the entrepreneurial track, only to get back on after working 12 years in various corporate jobs. Ultimately, Jaime likes being his own boss and making his own decisions, so there was an appeal to becoming an entrepreneur. Becoming a Great Leader Most entrepreneurs do everything themselves in the beginning. Identifying when to hire staff and even how to go about finding the right staff i

Jeremy Slate has run a gamut of diverse jobs on his journey to becoming an entrepreneur. He started out teaching high school, sold life insurance, worked as a personal trainer and even sold products on Amazon before landing a role with a marketing firm. At that point, everything just came together, and Jeremy has been able to find his niche and entrepreneurial success. Learning About Entrepreneurship In 2013, Jeremy’s wife introduced him to a network marketing opportunity. That didn’t work out, but he was exposed to the concept of entrepreneurship. This set Jeremy on a path that eventually led to partnering with a friend at a marketing firm. While working as the CMO at a marketing firm, Jeremy hit his stride. It didn’t take long before Jeremy jumped into podcasting. These days, through his business, Command Your Brand, Jeremy helps fellow entrepreneurs tell their story through podcasting. He has merged a storytelling process with an email sequence and opt-ins to help clients expand the reach of their brands

Stacey Howe-Lott is back on the show to speak with Gabe about how to empower people to empower others. Catch up on Stacey’s earlier episode to learn how her business helping students came about, and pick up some real-world advice. Stick with this episode to learn how to structure your talks or speeches to empower your listeners. Finding Cupcakes Stacey became involved with Seth Godin’s altMBA program and this lead to the creation of a teach-and-learn program, with Stacey spearheading helping people learn to make the most of these talks. When the notion of planning an in-person event came up, Stacey was there and scheduled to be the first person to speak. Her talk centered around cupcakes but it soon became a much larger message. Lead with Action Whether you are speaking at an industry event or giving a sales pitch, understanding how to lead people into action is a valuable skill that just may lead to world domination. It is important to filter things down and keep things simple, so your listeners are left w