On this episode of Rhodes to
Success, I interview John Maddox, who has been a serial
entrepreneur and has had a few successful exits, most recently with
Nashville-based interactive agency 10 Fast Feet. During this
episode, John and I discuss circumventing the gatekeeper,
overcoming ‘podfade,’ entrepreneurship, and looking
long-term.
Main Questions
Asked:
- Talk about being on Entrepreneur
On Fire. - What was your thought process
around what podcasting would do? - What have been the pain points you
have overcome that have allowed you to continue
podcasting? - Talk about your entry into
entrepreneurship and what it’s been like. - Tell us about the last company you
sold.
Key Lessons
Learned:
Circumvent the
Gatekeeper
- John started podcasting as a
networking tool in order to reach people and ‘circumvent the
gatekeeper.’ - Podcasting is a way to build
relationships with people of significant influence. - Big name guests want to share
their knowledge and help other people; however, you won’t always
get the people, and they won’t always respond. - Direct messaging and tweeting is a
handy way to reach people directly, as a lot of people manage their
own social media.
Overcoming Pain
Points
- If there isn’t a direct revenue
stream coming from the podcast, it is easy to lose focus on the
relationship building.
Entrepreneurship
- Don’t view what you are doing as
big or small, but rather view it as giving you control over your
life. - As an entrepreneur, you are still
relying on other people to write you checks. - If you are the owner, you are the
last to get fired, so if the business goes down, you don’t get laid
off. - The more you grow your business,
you have to balance your cash flow with the client
generation.
Looking
Long-Term
- A lot of people in the
entrepreneurial world are very short-term focused instead of
looking at mechanisms to leverage the ultimate goal. - As a society, we have become
conditioned to look a quarter or two ahead. - Look outside the box on how you
are going to circumvent your opponents.
Shifting
Focus
- John wanted to shift away from the
work for-hire-model to the work for equity and focus on the big
picture of return on investment.
Investment Legal
Changes
- On May 16, 2016, new laws go into
effect under the jobs act that allow non-accredited investors to be
equity investors in new companies. - For the last 82 years, the only
people who were allowed to invest outside of friends and family
have been accredited investors. - We will all now have the
opportunity to be investors in companies.
Subscribe to the show
in
"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/rhodes-to-success/id923134962">iTunes or Stitcher
Radio!
The music in today's episode was
written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them
out at
"https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic">https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic
Links to Resources
Mentioned
Serious
Startups
"http://johnmaddox.com/">John
Maddox
"http://seriousstartupsshow.com/">Let’s Talk Serious
Startups (podcast)
"http://ideashares.com/">Idea
Shares
"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/crowdfunding-pitch-show-kickstarter/id1062226676?mt=2">
The Crowdfunding Pitch Show
