We're going on a quick break, but this episode includes a sneak peek at what's coming up next. 

Thanks for a great season, and for all of the positive comments. If you love the show, consider leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts: https://lovethepodcast.com/stackingbricks

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I recently joined friend Jonathan Stark on his podcast "Ditching Hourly" where he typically talks about business strategies and best practices for helping freelancers and consultants escape hourly billing. And we talked about that world of business quite a bit, including how people often copy the wrong parts of the successes they've seen.

But as a self-published digital author himself, Jonathan also wanted to grill me on exactly how we launched The Tiny MBA and sold thousands of copies without a publishing deal...and without boxes of books sitting in my basement.

So I indulged him!

In this episode, you're going to hear my answers to Jonathan's questions about:

• Why we decided to make The Tiny MBA a physical, printed book in the first place
• How and why we picked our printing and distribution partner (and why it's not Amazon)
• And Jonathan and I riff on my new "secret weapon" for building pre-launch momentum, and why it created a 90% conversion rate and some of the fastest sales I've ever seen.

I also learned that Jonathan went to music school, and the comparison he draws in the first few moments between learning both business and music through style practices still has me thinking about it weeks later!

I'm excited to see Jonathan ship his first paperback book in the future, and if you're inspired to consider self-publishing a print book, I hope the stories and suggestions in this episode help you too.

WIth that, let's get into my conversation with Jonathan Stark from the Ditching Hourly podcast.

Ready? Here we go.

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This week I'm talking customer research with Eteinne Garbugli. Eteinne is the author of a book called Lean B2B, and after learning that his book included our Sales Safari customer research framework, I offered to talk with him and answer some of his remaining questions about the methodology.

In the next 30 minutes, you'll hear Eteinne and I talk about:
- the surprising origin of Sales Safari itself
- what we really mean when we say "customer pain" and the many forms it can take
- why strategically choosing an audience is actually a lot more straightforward than most entrepreneurs make it
 

...and a whole lot more.

In the full interview, we also talked about a bunch of other topics related to entrepreneurship and some of Eteinne's favorite lessons in The Tiny MBA, but you're here for the Sales Safari so I'm jumping straight into that here on the podcast feed!

This is some of the most in-depth information we've ever published about Sales Safari outside of our paid courses, so I'm excited to share it and hope it helps you understand and reach your audiences.

Ready? Here we go. 

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This week I'm stopping by The Cognitive Bias Podcast with David Dylan Thomas to riff on a topic we're both very passionate about: the intersection of ethics and capitalism.

Dave is one of the best people I can think of to talk to about this because as a designer and a strategist, He spent a lot of his career thinking about the implications of bias on our work as creators.

And one of the things I've heard Dave talk about over and over and over is how so many of the ethical problems we face in business today might actually be designed problems that we can better solve. And in some cases only solve. If we first understand to the cognitive biases that those problems are rooted in.

Dave has spent so much time thinking about bias that he literally wrote a book about it called Design for Cognitive Bias, about how to understand the impact of biases on our customers, our teams, even ourselves. 

The book is amazing. Everyone who makes things should absolutely read it.

Back to ethics and capitalism. Seemingly opposing forces. Right? 

Well, in this episode, we're going to be talking about:

•  the impact of survivorship bias on the kinds of businesses that people start and grow
• the relationships that exist between money and power 
• and a very unexpected segue into an episode of the nineties TV show dinosaurs that I promise is more relevant than you could possibly imagine.

If you enjoy this conversation, I highly recommend going and checking out. Dave's aptly named Cognitive Bias Podcast for other similar in-depth discussions with industry experts, and then go back and check out these super bingeable back catalog of his 5 to 10 minute episodes where he explores one bias in each one. It's truly a treasure trove of how our we're human brains work. 

But now, and here, I hope you enjoy this wide ranging discussion about the get rich quick scheme that we call America with David Dylan Thomas. Here we go. 

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This week I've got a quick brick for you today, on the topic of bosses.

One of the things I don't think we talk about enough is how the bosses we've had inform the bosses we become, and that includes becoming our own bosses too.

A few weeks back I had the chance to sit down with Lauren Williams from Workplace Harmony and the host of a very fun show called "Caffeinated Convos and Horrible Bosses" where she asks her guests to share their best stories about the worst bosses they've had, and try to learn lessons that can make us better bosses today.

Lauren and I talked more about my backstory and The Tiny MBA on her show, which you can go listen to at anchor.fm/horriblebosses, and dig into her archive for more horrible boss catharsis.

But in today's mini-episode, I share:

- My horrible boss story, and how it informed my approach to business
- As well as the impact one amazing boss has had on my life in ways that still impacts me, more than 15 years later.

All that and more inside this caffeinated conversation with my new friend, Lauren Williams. Here we go.

Find Lauren on Social Media
Twitter: @LaurenShazzam
Instagram: @workplaceharmonyHR
FB: Workplace Harmony

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This week The Tiny MBA podcast tour comes with a twist! Isn't there always a twist? Is it still a twist if you know a twist is coming? I guess M Night Shyamalan would say so.... ANYWAY.

I'm bringing you an episode from a brand new show called "Grow the Show" by my friend Kevin Chemidlin and his podcast company, Cue 9 productions.

As you might imagine from my repetition of the word "show" this is a podcast about...podcasts. More specifically, it's FOR podcasters. Ya see, Kevin is a professional podcaster himself, now producing successful shows of his own as well as for others. He recently started helping his fellow podcasters - as the title of his new podcast would suggest - grow their show.

GTS is a little less of an "interview' show and more focused on making sure each episode teaches a very specific lesson, from a very specific aspect of starting, growing, and even making money with podcasts. 

The expert just before me was Eric Nuzum, whos name you might not know but whose work you likely do: it includes a bunch of NPR shows like Invisibilia and TED radio hour.

On my episode of Grow the Show, we did something I hadn't had a chance to do yet: we looked at the lessons in The Tiny MBA through a very specific lens, exploring how the book applies to podcasters! We go very deep and specific into:

• how to find your audience on the internet
• the specific, concrete elements of audience building and effective self promotion
• and how to reach them without feeling (or looking like) a spammer.

Kevin's new show is great, and I'm excited to see what he does with in the coming months, so if you enjoy this one go search out "grow the show" wherever you get podcasts.

If you enjoy this deep dive on audience building with Kevin Chemidlin, make sure you go check out my full episode of Grow the Show along with the other episodes. Here we go.

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This week we're taking a break from the Tiny MBA podcast tour to bring you a very special conversation with a very special guest: Nilofer Merchant.

Nilofer comes with some serious credentials:

• She's worked as an executive and strategic consultant at massive companies like Apple, Adobe, Autodesk, Nokia, and many more
• She's shipped 18 Billion (with a B!) dollars in products across her 25 year career
• She's famous for (but not always known as the source of) the phrase "sitting is the smoking of our generation" from her viral TED talk by the same name
• She's written three business books, and currently writes an advice column about making hard business and life decisions that I highly recommend subscribing to: https://atwork.substack.com

But don't get it twisted: unlike many voices in positions of corporate power, Nilofer is a creator like you and me, and uses her position and experience in the business world to make the business world a better place for more people.

Nilofer is one of us :)

Which part of why I asked her to write the forward for my book, The Tiny MBA.

And here's the thing: whenever I have a conversation with Nilofer, we end up somewhere much deeper and more meaningful than where we started. We have a rapport that lets us skip the pleasantries and get right to the real stuff.

So in today's episode, Nilofer and I are inviting you into one of those conversations.

In this conversation we talk about everything from:

• How we learned to seek and understand patterns in business
• What we've learned from our careers of giving professional advice
• And why peeing in the pool is a problem

And a lot, lot more.

With that, let's get into this very special episode with Nilofer Merchant. Here we go.

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Over the last few weeks, I have been visiting podcasts all across the internet, talking with entrepreneurs and creative people, just like you.

And this time, I took a virtual trip to India to visit to my friends Mayur and Shai-zada on the Remote Explorers Podcast where they talk about remote work and more generally, the culture of work.

In the full episode that you can find on their podcast feed, we talked a lot about the current and future state of coworking, but here on Stacking the Bricks I pulled out some of the highlights about business, entrepreneurship, and education that are most relevant to you, including:

• The three most valuable parts of a college education, and why it might be more valuable for some people than others
• Where the "Tiny" in Tiny MBA came from
• And since this is a podcast about remote work, a few of my best tips for adapting to remote work (hint: it's got nothing to do with software)

So with that, I hope you enjoy this very special presentation from the Mayur and Shaizada, the Remote Explorers. Here we go!

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