The Self-Made Expert Podcast

This was a delightful conversation, and one that made me laugh more than any in recent memory. Rob Fitzpatrick shares the journey from showering under a 5-gallon bucket in a warehouse scheduled for demolition to running a satisficing lifestyle business with $20k/mo in book revenue and a growing community. Links: https://www.robfitz.com/homehttp://writeusefulbooks.com

This was a delightful conversation with emerging expert Denis Oakley. I especially loved how Denis "got his reps in" by selling business models on Upwork. Links: denis@denis-oakley.comdenis-oakley.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/denis-oakley-innovation/https://twitter.com/denisoakleyhttps://www.youtube.com/c/DenisOakleyStrategyConsulting/videos

Jonathan suggested a followup conversation; I enjoyed hearing from him about his transition from surfing a once-in-a-generation tech wave to a very different kind of advisory business, his inventory of every nasty email he's ever received from his list, and how he runs inexpensive experiments. Links: jonathanstark.comvaluepricingbootcamp.com

Kyle and I discuss entering a new market, inventing new terminology, and pursuing a transformative agenda. https://www.superhelpful.comhttps://museumprogress.comhttps://museumprogress.com/get-map-letters

Very important links: https://inboundfound.com/https://inboundfound.com/emails/

John Jantsch talks about his new book on marketing, The Ultimate Marketing Engine: 5 Steps to Ridiculously Consistent Growth.

A wide-ranging conversation where Guillaume explains how he remains positive while building a novel framework for strategic narrative.

Chris Ferdinandi helps people learn vanilla JavaScript. He believes there’s a simpler, more resilient way to make things for the web. His developer tips newsletter is read by thousands of developers each weekday. Learn more at GoMakeThings.com.

Seth and I discuss becoming a storyteller, neuroscience, and how to tell a good story. https://www.storifyagency.com/selfmade

Blair and I had a fascinating, wide-ranging conversation about how he became a self-made expert on selling creative services.

Gini Dietrich created a piece of intellectual property -- her PESO framework -- that has become very popular and trusted (and imitated). In this conversation, she describes the process of developing this IP.

I had a delightful conversation with Jonathan about his cultivation of self-made expertise.

Josh and I spoke about his approach to cultivating valuable expertise.

Some time after we recorded this interview, Mike merged his business endeavors with those of his colleage Cory Quinn to form Duckbill Group, but any chance to share Mike's insight -- whether it reflects his current focus or not -- is worth doing, so I am publishing this interview despite it not reflecting Mike's latest trajectory.

I speak with David C. Baker about his upcoming book on selling advisory services. The COVID pandemic totally borked his release schedule, so as of the pub date of this podcast this book isn't available yet; consider this a teaser of an upcoming release.

David C. Baker and I had a wide-ranging conversation about how his expertise-powered business grew to over $1MM in annual revenue.

About the rename of this podcast.

This letter might be for you. I can’t know, because the response to an email sent to a list is always a probability distribution, never a certainty. I reckon this email lands in a meaningful way for 4% of you. It is audacious that I should want anything specific for you, other than a nice, warm, up-and-to-the-right curve for your happiness and achievement; a general and sincere well-wishing for your life. You should plot your own course. And yet I persist in wanting specific things for...

It's not the *best* summary of this episode, but it might be the most interesting: Stephen Warley of Life Skills That Matter talks about running weird businesses. We talk about a lot more — including how Stephen built a 2-sided marketplace that sold training to the broadcast industry and generated ~$600k/year in revenue. This interview was originally livestreamed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXvmJkXf_lc) and has been converted to audio for this podcast.