Zen Business - Mindfulness, Hustle and Fulfillment

Most startups are built on hope. The ones that succeed are those that are built around value.

On this episode of the Zen Business podcast, your host Jonathan Maxim sits down with a serial entrepreneur and app builder who delivers the value to users that makes apps go viral and earn life-changing profits for their founders.

Traveling all the way from Italy, Marco Yammine shares his experience and knowledge of successful app design and marketing.

Marco has built and helped launch – from “Zero to one” – over 50 apps. He makes products that are really built around value for the user.

It’s all too easy for founders to get lost in their great ideas. That’s because of the natural human tendency to evaluate business ideas with rose-tinted glasses.

Marco’s philosophy for building apps is focused on execution over ideas. The practical aspects of apps that people enjoy & that solve a problem, delivering value in the process. 

Another is timing your solution with the trends in the market. You will learn in this episode, for example, how to tune in to the market you’re focused on. Then you will find a problem or opportunity that will form the basis for a quality app that users download, use, and rave about. The problem or the opportunity has to come first, then the idea.

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Listen to New Zen Business episodes every Monday - Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Overcast & MoreFind @itsjmaxim on Instagram where you can get free Marketing, Mindset and Money tips.

This episode of the Zen Business podcast could be your ticket to a huge number of high-quality, low-cost downloads if you’re ready to launch or relaunch your business’ killer app in 2024

In today’s episode, Jonathan Maxim breaks down the elements that all successful app launches have in common.

This isn’t textbook theory or guesswork. It’s based on 23 launches that Maxim led in 2023. There were 18 winners and 5 losers. But what made the winning app launches successfully profitable for their businesses, and what made the losing launches fail, was not random or haphazard. 

Winning campaigns that hit their goals & rocketed to 10,000+ downloads at a profitable cost-per-download all followed similar patterns & shared common characteristics. The campaigns that did not succeed also failed in all the same ways.

For example, and we found this really interesting— Most of the winning app launches had an offer that was just good (not mind-blowing, disruptive, or super great). In fact, some of the apps with a really great offer did not perform as well at launch. Jonathan explains why in the pod.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to tell if you have enough budget runway for your app launch, how to follow a clear and consistent launch strategy, and how to make sure your product has the magic in it with analytics to see what users are doing on your app.

Listen to New Zen Business episodes every Monday - Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Overcast & MoreFind @itsjmaxim on Instagram where you can get free Marketing, Mindset and Money tips.

If you're a fan of efficiency & happiness, or if you are moving so fast in life, you don't know where the time goes, this episode is for you.

Jonathan takes the beginning of the new year to reflect on the power inside of reflection.  Consider this.. Had you taken enough time to reflect on your learnings or tasks recently, would you have caught that latest mistake you made at work?

The why behind all this reflection is simple. This practice of intentionally slowing down allows your brain to truly learn & absorb the new information you receive. Listen in to learn more about the power of reflection & how to shut down the reactive states of mind that create chaos.

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Listen to New Zen Business episodes every Monday - Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Overcast & MoreFind @itsjmaxim on Instagram where you can get free Marketing, Mindset and Money tips.

Geoffrey Campbell, a partner at Praxis Engineering, comes on the show to talk about how data is shaping the way content is made today. Campbell & Zen Business host, Jonathan Maxim, have worked together before for Universal Music Group, representing major artists like Taylor Swift, Migos, and Billy Eilish, among others.

Big data is changing how content is being created from large scale productions all the way down to individual creators.

Access to statistically meaningful information has produced useful insights for content creators & beyond.  The content we see created today is, at least, in part a result of these essential economics of content markets.

In addition to discussing content markets & techniques related to valuable proprietary & publicly available data, including scraping and analytics, our guest discusses with Jonathan the use of AI to scale content creation strategies.  Listen in to learn how Spotify and Netflix have used original content production to increase their companies’ profit margins.

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Jonathan Maxim of K&J Growth Hackers sits down to speak with brand-building extraordinaire, Santi Pereira.

With a business degree from the Wharton School and a job working for online sports and games betting platform, Lucra Sports, Santi has an enormous amount of experience building audiences online and promoting businesses with branded content.

On this episode of the Zen Business podcast, Pereira tells us about one of the craziest marketing experiences he’s had in his career. He also gives us some revealing context about digital marketing ROI on production vs. creator content. 

You’ll also learn how to find your audience using TikTok Spark Ads, how Lucra Sports does niche marketing with user generated content, and how to cover your CPA with word-of-mouth advertising. Tap in to some knowledge.

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Listen to New Zen Business Episodes every Monday - Available on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Overcast & More

In our latest podcast episode, Jonathan had the privilege of chatting with David Gull, an entrepreneur whose journey is nothing short of remarkable. He made the leap from the world of architecture to the crossroads of technology and mindfulness.

David's story is a testament to transformation, fueled by unshakable passion and an unwavering commitment to creating a positive impact on the world.

During our conversation, we delved into David’s personal experiences, charted the evolution of his career, and deeper into his groundbreaking venture, Ogimi. This endeavor is laser-focused on harnessing the potential of AI to elevate well-being and mindfulness.

We’re back with another episode of the Zen Business podcast to continue a multi-part series connecting the dots that ALL successful viral growth campaigns take to monetize & scale an app.

In the last episode, your app marketing guru, Jonathan Maxim broke down A/B testing, mobile app monetization, and ad campaign optimization.

With those crucial set-up strategies in your rearview, here’s the super simple and powerful growth formula to make an app go viral with scalable referral campaigns.

Jonathan walks listeners through how to set up referral campaigns that give prospects the most motivation to act, while also saving tons on acquisition costs with insanely sweet ROI.

You’ll learn how to create value unlocks and feature add-ons for referrals, use sweepstakes contests to get paid subscribers cheap, and boost your app store conversion.

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Listen to New Zen Business Episodes every Monday - Available on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Overcast & More

We’re back with another episode of ZBP, continuing a five-part series connecting our patented steps for a successful viral growth campaign for app. It's time to take monetization seriously and begin scaling the app with precisely tested ads.

In the first two episodes in the series, Jonathan broke down the pre-launch & beta testing phases for the listeners. Now, with these critical set-up and beginning objectives in your roadmap, here’s the super simple and powerful growth formula that isn’t obvious. Listen in as Jonathan drops gems with an overview of how to scale an app and grow it quickly with monetization strategies, continually optimizing your advertising dollars with A/B tests. It's all built to profit as you scale up!

You’ll learn how to monetize an iOS app store or Android Google Play store app, use influencer creative to guide product-market fit, and A/B testing mobile apps through cleverly constructed ad campaigns. If you're a founder of a new app, this is a can't miss podcast.

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The viral app user growth company behind our podcast, K&J Growth Hackers, shook up digital marketing, having worked with clients such as TikTok in 2018, Triller in 2020, and Universal Music Group in 2021.

Guest Cameron Labrecque, a serial entrepreneur, app designer, startup founder, and creator of the Rememery app sits down with Zen Business host Jonathan Maxim and discusses his path of entrepreneurship, app marketing, and raising funding for his big idea.

Cam started with only the idea and the market research he gathered using user feedback on the product before he created it, in order to find a good product market fit.

That’s what enabled him to put together funds to start building the app and launch it when it came time to pitch the idea to investors, first family and friends, then capitalists. Listen in to learn more on how he did it.

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This episode of Zen Business is the second part of a series teaching the basics of our best viral app launch strategies. We’re especially excited to bring you this program! Our viral app growth marketing company, K&J Growth Hackers, changed the game with big clients like TikTok in 2018, Triller in 2020, and Universal Music Group in 2021.

Zen Business host Jonathan Maxim breaks down how we A/B tested user-generated content to help make TikTok the biggest hit of 2019 on Google Play and Apple App Store. In this episode, Jonathan goes into the Beta test launch phase of a viral app launch strategy.

You’ll learn how to set up and use creative content made by 10 – 15 influencers promoting your app and test them across ad group audiences quickly to find out what to scale fast with your ad dollars & know when to cut the losers.

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Listen to New Zen Business Episodes every Monday - Available on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Overcast & More

The latest episode of Zen Business is the first of a five-part series teaching the fundamentals of our most effective strategies for launching apps into virality. We are thrilled to present this program to you.

Host Jonathan Maxim breaks down everything our marketing company did to make TikTok the app stores’ biggest hit of 2019. We repeated that success with Triller in 2020 and Universal Music Group in 2021.

On this episode, Jonathan dives into the tools and proven strategies that pave the way for successful app launches during the crucial pre-launch phase

You’ll learn how to set up and use Google Firebase and Appsflyer to track user actions in your app, plan your launch strategy, optimize your app store page, and test your app for usability to ensure it’s delivering the most value possible to your app launch campaign’s acquisitions. 

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In this episode, Zen Business Podcast welcomes Brian Murphy, the founder and CEO of Living Prana, an organic food business.

Brian shares with Jonathan and the Zen Business audience some issues plaguing the American Food system today. Discussing topics such as artificial chemicals, the super-abundance of sugar, and all the preservatives that are making Americans obese. It's clear that eating healthier is a challenge for millions of us.

We go into the misalignments in the system that leave our leaders and influencers helpless to stop millions of Americans from eating their way into heart disease and cancer. What's even more concerning is that many Americans feel powerless to change their habits.

It is a significant systemic failure when Western medicine remains crucial for those who are seriously ill or severely injured. If only we could utilize natural remedies for preventive healthcare!

Living Prana is an organic food business that ships organic pancake mix with natural ingredients, superfoods, mushrooms, and adaptogens direct to your door. Listen in for some deep truths on food & health in America.

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In this episode of the Zen Business podcast, host Jonathan Maxim gets to sit down and speak with Inc. 500 Entrepreneur and 40 Under 40 2023 winner Brian D. Evans.

He started his first business on eBay, selling car parts. Intent on expanding his business, Brian found ways to get other traffic online using strategies like SEO and affiliate marketing. He wound up selling other products, and eventually creating his own products and selling them direct-to-consumer.

Brian started a digital marketing agency after his success with E-commerce. He worked with everyone from Hollywood actors, to mobile apps, to video games. His business did work like user acquisition, press marketing, and all sorts of other different online campaigns and digital marketing that professional agencies do.

Then a meeting with a blockchain entrepreneur by introduction of a mutual business colleague got Brian’s wheels turning over the burgeoning microcurrency industry. After getting an understanding of how sought after Ethereum was by online markets at the time, he turned his attention to investing in the blockchain space. 

Brian tells us about his business history and what he thinks of the current era of the blockchain industry’s development. Listen in for some updates about a new cryptocurrency reality television show Brian is working with to get onto a number of streaming services soon.

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Listen to New Zen Business episodes every Monday - Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Overcast & More

On this episode of the Zen Business podcast, yours truly got a chance to sit down with a great ally and even better friend, Chris Cunningham. Cunningham is a founding member of ClickUp, as well as its Head of Brand Strategy & Influencer Marketing. ClickUp, if you don't know about it, is a software/app that has reimagined team productivity and collaboration.

K&J Growth Hackers has had a lot of success onboarding clients using ClickUp’s dashboard, tools and interface. We get into the nuts and bolts of how we use ClickUp at K&J and how it’s helped us to make things easy for ourselves and our customers (all while we manage their digital marketing growth campaigns).

We also get into how our businesses tailor our products to our ideal customers, a teaser update about ClickUp v3, methods to meditating, how playing basketball to unwind from work can inspire ideas, maintaining life balance, and discuss the roster of possible future guests on the Zen Business podcast.

Also, Chris prompts me with a great question about the most impactful thing I’ve read in a book about business recently, and the answer could make all the difference in your business.

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Make your mobile app launch go viral using our proven strategy!

In this podcast, I teach you how to plan your mobile app launch strategy so you are set up to go viral. If you're investing your time into designing an app & listing it on the app store, it's essential to align the right factors and drive growth. Increasing the adoption of your app is critical.

This episode is for mobile apps that are ready to launch, meaning that your product is built out and ready to be installed from the App Store and Google Play store. Although, if you are still in the process of building your app, this might be a good time to start thinking about how you are going to market it.

Once your product is done and you’re ready to go (hopefully you’ve done a beta before doing what I’m going to teach you in this podcast), it’s time to decide what your goals are in terms of marketing, strategy, budget, and timeline. I’ll go through each of these areas one by one.

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In this episode we’re going to be Funnel Hacking!

I’m going to teach you the exact marketing strategy that we used to get HeyPal over a million downloads in six months, to get TikTok 24,000 downloads in 24-hours, and to get Triller 400% better marketing results from their  user acquisition marketing.

These are the actual funnels, the tactics and strategies that we use to make apps go viral. This episode is about the positive aspects of virality.

First off, there’s how to engineer viral marketing.

Secondly, there’s methods on how to use viral attention to create a long-term outcome, rather than short-term ones, which is generally what happens.

We're selling this as a service to small startups and tech companies, as well. So, if you're interested, reach out and we'll build that funnel out in a month for you.

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Investing your extra wealth for passive income producing businesses can yield big returns!

The money printer passive income seeking entrepreneurs want, however, is not an opaque and mysterious black box. Neither is it an instrument of e-commerce that works without some sophisticated initial setup and routine management.

There are the necessary refinements of a business plan to serve an ultra-niche online market that must be made to find a sustainable, long-term business model. There’s also the routine maintenance and management of income investing businesses for customer service, quality control, and administration.

Even investments like stocks, bonds, and ETFs require the investor’s attention, care, and direction. With automated online businesses investors pay more attention, care, and up front work to understand and direct their investment.

These are the trade offs for more control over what the business does to increase sales or profits. The result is more opportunities for bigger returns on investment.

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Are your advertising campaigns really getting the fattest part of the fish?

If your ad spend is returning $0.50, $0.25, or even as bad as $0.10 profit for every $1 you put into your campaign, your business might be leaving big monthly income on the table! Using our proprietary A/B testing methods at our digital marketing firm, K&G Growth Hackers, we are used to getting campaigns to yield at least a dollar or two back for every dollar spent on ads (That’s why we are performance-based).

That kind of ROI is what we’ve come to expect, but we’ve hit our share of home runs with $4 - $10 returns (400% - 1000%) on every dollar spent to run ads. How is that possible? 

In this episode I’ll get into a basic outline of our process to measure campaigns with clearly specified accountability, metrics, and KPIs for a scientific approach to optimizing ad campaigns.

This results in getting useful data really fast to know what decisions to make with your budget, so you have market evidence for what ad creatives, keywords, and demos to cut, and which ones should get a promotion and a raise with your remaining budget because they bring in money.

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After a multi-million dollar exit, this laptop entrepreneur won’t quit making businesses!

Alan Howard is a search engine optimization and digital marketing extraordinaire. He grew his digital marketing business from scratch to serve Fortune 500 companies, Fortune 200 companies, and many large corporate clients. Then, after reaching a high-flying level of success with this business, Alan exited with a big sale, to travel the world and start even more businesses.

Now, he lives in Latin America, travels for business and pleasure, and makes his money from online coaching to help other online entrepreneurs just getting started out to learn from his successes and challenges along the way so that they can replicate his success in their own lives and with their own digital marketing and other online businesses.

In this episode, Jonathan & Alan discuss how to position your online business in a niche to make easier profits, how to grow your book of business, how to overcome paralysis from worry instantly, and how to cultivate the penchant for taking massive action towards your goals in business and in life.

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Listen to New Zen Business episodes every Monday - Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Overcast & More

Want a Matrix-style download on five life hacks?

1) Modern applications of classic stoic wisdom 2) How to utilize your mind & network to assemble the ultimate vortex 3) How to take better care of your body by breathing differently 4) How to jumpstart healthy blood flow and recirculation, and 5) How to fight your way up from the bottom to accomplish your dreams. Boom, there you have it.

Here are my five book recommendations for 2023 (They handily answer all the questions, amazingly).  Please don’t forsake reading because it truly is the path less traveled; the same path to wisdom and an enriched life for anyone who earnestly seeks it.

Did you know the top quintile of income earners in the United States report they read an average of 60 books a year (Or 5 books a month)? That’s a little over one per week. The bottom quintile of income earners report reading an average of 0 books a year. Bare that in mind, as you’re listening to the latest episode and deciding which books to read next.

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These AI Tools Are Primed For Business-Use Breakthroughs.

AI is one of the hottest topics globally. The thrilling global conversation about chat AI that OpenAI’s ChatGPT launched last November has resounded. The chatter about AI has risen to such volumes that some commentators are warning that we’re already in an AI bubble. But, I believe there’s more to it than just hype. AI, as a class of tools have already competently and professionally handled millions of creative requests & the number is growing by the day.

Whether you’re thinking about using creative AI engines to streamline your business, automating some of your routine tasks, or to ease your way through the mental resistance of getting started on some essential startup tasks (like picking a name, designing a logo, and putting up a website), there’s a smart AI tool ready to help.

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We’re almost a full quarter into the new year and markets are chaotic, to say the least. There’s so much going on, positive and negative, and that means there are opportunities and threats on the landscape. Smart investors are holding their cash close. If you are in the same boat, taking a wait and see approach, this podcast is for you.

I’ve had success with K&J Growth Hackers over the years, so I’ve got a little war chest I’ve been saving up myself. This isn't financial advice but if you're curious how I'm going to get deeper into the game this year, I'll explain the strategies behind how I plan to deploy my funds.

If you’re thinking about investing some of your savings in 2023, or you’re already an active investor, this episode will help you generate some ideas. Again, it’s not financial advice or a call for anyone to go out and invest in what I’m investing in. But I’m hoping that in telling you about it, you will gain insight from my priorities and approach when investing this next year.

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The resolutions you make for a new year fall by the wayside far too quickly, for far too many people. Are you curious why that happens? It’s because most people don’t follow up their resolutions with planning, changes to their routine, and constant self-management. The “Million Dollar Morning Routine,” is a guide that can help readers establish a morning routine that maintains & builds momentum.

At the start of each new day, this is a dive into pushing aside excuses, laziness, and complacency to focus on the habits needed to live an extraordinary life (and have a great work-life balance). Even though it started as a fitness book on weight-gain and strength conditioning, it has become much more than that.  Starting off each new day with healthy, mindful structures enables you to achieve a high quality life.

In this episode, Jonathan shares how he established the Million Dollar Morning Routine and how it helps him and his team to discipline their minds and laser-focus their energy. This isn’t a ‘how to’.  This is a “how you can too”.

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Since its launch in November 2022, Chat GPT has been wowing users with the sophistication of its answers to their writing prompts. Powered by a large family of language models and a huge database of machine learning interactions, Chat GPT delivers instantly researched, fact-checked answers to your questions.

If that weren’t impressive enough, the answers are conversationally interesting and unique to each chat.  AI is now beginning to rival human counterparts.

In this episode, we explore the deeper impacts and business opportunities that technology like Chat GPT opens up and how to take advantage for your greater good.

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Listen to New Zen Business episodes every Monday - Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Overcast & More

As 2023 opens, e-commerce businesses, managed by automated means and put together by a growing strata of digital growth artisans, are spinning up all over the place.  Of course, not every online promise to make a million dollars in a month is true, but there are certainly unique opportunities emerging.  With the advent of automated businesses, many entrepreneurs are making more money than ever in this niche.

Drop-shippping products on Amazon and Shopify has been dead since the pandemic.  Firms like these are burnt out trying the same trick too many times or they aren't evolving their ideas and strategies to meet changes in the digital market.

With all the new advertising channels constantly opening up and growing in 2023, and the quality of the tooling for online business management today, starting a successful automated business is the entrepreneurship of the future. The entire calculus of the investment game is changing at a very rapid pace.  In this episode, we unbox it all and dive into the future of investing.

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Making your first million dollars isn’t really an arrival point. It’s a place of transition.  An interesting, trying, and illuminating transition. After our Los Angeles-based growth hacking business crossed our first million dollar threshold not long ago, I found it was just the beginning of my journey in business and life.  Now I’m meeting so many others at my level, just ahead of me, and right behind me on this abundant path.

In this episode, I revisit the circumstances surrounding this milestone and I share with you is how we intentionally and actively created this opportunity in the first place.  Plus, most importantly, how we were ready to go for it when our moment came. Inside, I'll tell you about the difficulties and trials that always seem to happen right before your big break. We went through it all together.

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To achieve flow-state you need balance in every area of your life.  If you've never experienced it before, it can feel euphoric.  So, describing flow-state, essentially, means that your mind, body and spirit are all in synchronicity.  Your creative and analytical sides of yourself are in alignment and working together "in the edge". Work and creativity just start flowing out of you.  

This ability is crucial to achieving ground-breaking change and success and it's absolutely been practiced by every luminary there ever was, whether they knew it or not.  But what can we do to achieve flow-state for ourselves?  There's actually A LOT we can do to induce flow-state within us.  

This episode is all about getting into a state of creativity, feeling good, focus, analytical and intellect; all working simultaneously.  

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Here’s how one man overcame addiction and became a star on the hit Netflix series, ‘Bling Empire’.

• Tips on making it in LA (The honest way)
• Resisting the triggers of doubt
• Building your spirit with resilience of faith
• Leaning into sobriety and receiving signals from the ether
• Learning how to trust your intuition
• How to develop your emotional guidance system
• Connecting with source and methods to staying in connection

Links & Resources:

Here’s how one man single-handedly drove over 5.5M in gov’t refunds to small businesses like you (and how to get your free cash refund).

• Tips on increasing efficiency
• The psychological connections between sports and business
• The importance of not being afraid to face down adversity
• How to develop a fearless mindset
• The art of looking for problems that need solving and how to capitalize on them when you see them

Links & Resources

A bit of background on the current landscape.  Here at K&J, it took us four years to reach 250K per month in revenue.  Recently though, we launched a drilled-down business & it took us one month to reach the same milestone.  What can be learned here?   We stretched our minds to consider the possibility that we could deliver 10x the value at one tenth the cost. 

We leveraged laziness into getting monster results and outsized outcomes.  First, let's step back and say, we are always looking for the outsized outcomes.  That is the nature of growth-hacking itself.  There's usually always a way to hop, skip, and jump over the blood, sweat and tears most people believe is necessary to get there.   

The ultimate goal then, is to have the amount of work done, make an enormous impact as a whole.  Inside this episode, I share my understanding of systems to leverage your way forward and launching your business or idea into a new stratosphere of possibility.

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If you listened to the last episode, you'll have an idea how my first company led me to the verge of several life-changing moments.  In this episode, I recount all the details behind this $2.2 million investment from Kevin Hart.  Then, how it crumbled in front of my eyes.

I share this story with you in the hopes that you can relate to my experience and feel reassured whenever you may be experiencing a piece of failure in your life.  When you are living a hustling, fulfilling life, it is these moments of setback that always produce the best learnings possible.

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This is perhaps the most vulnerable story I've ever told and one most people would never dare tell.  I share the background behind starting a fitness app, buying the biggest penthouse in Philadelphia with 4 friends, getting a huge celebrity to commit to investing $2.2 million, then watching as it all fell apart.  

Hopefully, you can learn from my mistakes and take your own lessons from this crazy and totally candid story.  As a founder, you have to set your vision and stick to it.  So, if you are building a new company, or mobile app, this episode will be especially poignant.  Inside, I share my understanding of the dynamics of leverage and the importance of creating a plan that includes emotional and financial runway. 

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Dive into the practical and tactical approach to actually manifest what you desire.  However, be aware: The bigger the thing you wish to manifest, the higher your vibrations and state of awareness have to be.  This episode is the third in my series on manifestation.

Building on Part 1 and Part 2, where three key laws and seven critical mindset habits are discussed, I dive into the nitty-gritty of this mystical practice.  

Let's take a step back, slow down and feel into our internal compass.  This is a core element to manifestation.  Instead of thinking about it, just feel it. Going over several tips, like how a mood board can be an extremely helpful tool to develop this metaphysical ability, we set out intentions.  The visual of a mood board will help produce a springboard effect for your energy.

You have to calibrate the signals between your heart and mind, to bridge the gap and actualize your dreams.  This episode is all about calibration and leaning into the moment, the feeling, your mind, and ultimately, your heart and higher self.

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Listen to New Zen Business episodes every Monday - Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Overcast & More

When you are ready to begin manifesting anything you want, this is part of the play book available to you.  This episode is the second in our series on manifestation. 

Continuing forward from the foundational video, where the three key laws were discussed, I introduce the necessary mindset habits that must be understood at a deeper level.  Remember, you are literally programming your mind here.  

One of the critical lessons that must be absorbed, and felt at a subconscious level, is acceptance.  You have to accept that you are born with innate desires.  Your purpose isn't to feel un-worthy of nice things or more money.   We were born with unique gifts and in order to manifest our wishes, you must embrace the creative expression of those gifts.  Be warned: This process takes calibration of your heart and mind. 

You have to have the right mindset because your vision will manifest, whether you like it or not.  This episode is all about getting the mindset right and tuning into that frequency .

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Everyone wants fitness results fast, but at what cost? If any cost? Here's the secret no one is talking about. 

How can we live 100 years instead of 75 years? Is your body secretly stuck in negative feedback loops you don't even know exist? These are the questions myself and my special guest, Dustin Stanley, explore in this podcast.

Muscles are made up of specific muscle cells and, as many know of us already know, everything in our body has a trigger.  This trigger, or signal, is meant to get our body to do something we need it to do.  The lack of the multiplication of collagen, for instance, is why skin starts sagging or getting wrinkles.  But it's now possible to change that signal?

When we are able to gain more awareness of this brain-body connection, scientists have noted that developing techniques to delay gratification directly correlates to greater success in business.  It's not about how fast you can win.  This episode is all about playing the long game and learning crucial tips on how our body really works.

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If you want to begin manifesting anything you want, there is a play book available.  This episode represents the first in a series of episodes I will be doing on the subject. 

Have you ever wondered, when you buy a car, why you always see the same car on the road?  Not only is there a mindset that comes with this phenomenon, there are many books on the subject.  But, the bottom line is you need to lean into your feeling side to make your manifesting dreams work. Emotions are the frequency of the universe.

Even if you're a person that has more of an "Alpha" drive, the first step to get the exponential results of manifestation is feeling.  Everything in this space is about feeling.  So, tuning into the feelings of what's most aligned is necessary.  Keep your antennas on and turned inwards.  You get what you think about, whether or not you want it.

As you listen, you'll learn that understanding the law of attraction is the crucial first step, before you can manifest anything.  Whatever you put your thought or desire to, becomes your reality.  This episode is all about applying the metaphysical recipes given; creating, and re-creating your world as one that is conspiring in your favor.

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Listen to New Zen Business episodes every Monday - Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Overcast & More

We are extremely picky in who we bring on as clients.  They have to bring something to the table that's unique if it's going to be a win-win situation.  This is the truth in the matter because we, at the end of the day, are performance-based.  Explosive growth does not come from being lucky.  There's a formula to it that can be cracked.  As a team, K&J drills down into these important differentiators.  Adam Stinson, K&J's Junior Partner, joins Zen Business for a discussion on the many issues faced when trying to scale and grow.  

We dive deep into some of the pitfalls of marketing a new product, service or app.  And some of the main reasons we don't want to take on certain clients, speak to larger issues being faced across the landscape of start-ups, big brands, and every business in between.

In this discussion, we cover red flags we encounter from founders, new companies and app developers, and the issues that arise around misunderstandings of the space or audience they are targeting.  Beyond that, we get into the allure of going "viral".  This episode dissects the "quest for virality" and the impact this phenomenon has had on marketing and current trends.  Adam ponders, "Are you really a good artist, if you can't sell your art?".

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Listen to New Zen Business episodes every Monday - Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Overcast & More

There's really no reason to "Learn the hard way" yourself.  That simple concept is what led me to value coaching so much.  Fast forward to Ian, my coach who passed away.  This 23 year old was revered by executives twice his age so I hired this true visionary alien when I was 27, and even after five years, the knowledge he shared is extremely relevant.

He was so on target with his recommendations, I almost couldn't wrap my head around it at first. I was much more of a doer and this guy was absolutely brilliant; Out-of-this-world connections being made in front of my eyes.  He was so big picture and profound. 

One of the biggest pieces he left me with is the breakthrough of self-limiting beliefs.  Basically, boundaries we set up in our minds, based on societal conditioning, our own view of ourselves, childhood experiences, parents, role models, and/or all of the above.  It was so valuable to me, I'm repackaging his teaching and giving it to my own team to grow from.  Learn exactly the type of person he was, and how I was able to see what I could not see as possible.  As many illumined souls say, "Open up your pineal gland and with it, the seed of your spirit".

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Listen to New Zen Business episodes every Monday - Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Overcast & More

Would you make a change in the business that threatened its very existence?

Here's the story of how we took a massive leap of faith, and ended up doubling our revenue in six months. And why you should be willing to take risks in business, in life and in relationships.

Vulnerability is the core of all risk taking and those who avoid risk not only reinforce their insecurity toward perfection but threaten the blessings of an exciting, fulfilling and rewarding life.

Follow along as I tell the story of why I made an executive decision to fire 80% of our clients and drop our revenue below costs making the company go unprofitable, in turn having Kale question me, the company and our partnership.

Alas, at the end, we came out on top. But it wasn't easy. However these are some of the most poignant lessons I've experienced and memories most cherished.

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Listen to New Zen Business episodes every Monday - Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Overcast & More

Every entrepreneur dreams of having a multi-million dollar exit and retiring to a beach, but it’s not that simple. A close confidante asked me, “If you had ONE chance to make an "exit", would this be the one? Are you willing to give up the last 5+ years of your life for this acquisition?" I provide my thinking behind our answer, no.  

If you’re considering selling your company or your dream is to exit with your current company, think through a few practical concepts before romanticizing this "dream" scenario. Learn exactly how and why you would want to sell your business, what the aftermath will look like and source your reasoning deep from within before making a conclusive decision.

In this episode I explain and discuss Roll-ups, EBITDA, and multiples are discussed during the sharing of our first offer story. Since then we've had 5 offers but have declined them all.

Experience is invaluable inside a unique process like an acquisition.  Both sides have to feel like they are winning. I'm going to walk through exactly why we said no and what some red flags were in the process - and how many of them could have been prevented by me and my team even though we didn't intentionally cause any.

Be careful of the allure of an acquisition. It's not as glamorous as it sounds. This episode is all about helping you be equipped if you're ever in a similar position.

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Listen to New Zen Business episodes every Monday - Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Overcast & More