Business is Good with Chris Cooper

Chris Cooper
  • 5.0 (4)
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  • Updated Weekly

One on one mentorship saved my business. So I decided to share that process starting with a 200-word blog post. Fast forward to today and my mentorship practice is a 21 million dollar worldwide company with a team of 50 professional mentors. Scaling from a tiny gym business to one of the largest mentorship practices in the world meant developing simple systems that could be taught easily to others. But building a movement requires leading by example, and showing people that business isn’t evil; that building wealth doesn’t require taking it from others; and that creating value lifts us all. It’s always been important to me to succeed the right way: without empty promises or slimy sales tricks. So the purpose of the Business Is Good podcast is to share the models that will scale a business FAST; but, more importantly, to help you build a business you’re proud to own. Visit businessisgood.com for more info and resources from the show.

  1. 1d ago

    Starting A Single-Person Business: Part VI - Your Referral Funnel

    Referrals are the most powerful marketing channel any service business will ever have. A referred client costs nothing to acquire, arrives pre-sold, and tends to stay longer. Yet most businesses are completely passive about referrals — waiting, hoping, and throwing out discount incentives nobody remembers. The $50-off referral card model works for software companies where signing up means clicking a button. It doesn't work for service businesses, where joining requires trust, time, and a conversation. Your clients aren't salespeople — you can't delegate your sales process to them. This episode covers three strategies for building a referral system. First, recruitment events: create specific "bring a friend" occasions with advance registration, where your goal is capturing contact info and booking consultations, not selling on the spot. Second, ask specifically using the 90-day Goal Review process — measure your client's progress, celebrate their wins, and then make a referral ask based on what you know about their life. Not "do you know anyone?" but a specific suggestion about a specific person. Third, build referrals into your client journey by telling new clients at their first meeting that you'll ask for a referral at 90 days — eliminating awkwardness and getting them thinking early. The episode includes ten industry-specific examples of exactly how to run the goal review and referral conversation, from personal trainers to photographers to financial planners. Download the free Affinity Marketing Worksheet in the show notes. Next episode: Part VII — building your content funnel. Connect with Chris Cooper: Website - https://businessisgood.com/

    25 min

  2. Jun 13

    Starting A Single-Person Business: Part V - Your 30-Day Content Strategy

    Your first marketing post works — but it works once. You need a strategy for showing up consistently, building trust, and moving people through the funnel. This episode shows you how to use AI to build 30 days of content in one sitting. The episode introduces three types of content: story posts that build trust, education posts that demonstrate expertise, and promotion posts that invite action. At least one in every three posts includes a clear CTA. A copy-paste prompt generates the entire 30-day calendar from your specific business details — who you help, what problem you solve, and your current offer. Every post is scripted with captions ready to paste and simple photo/video directions. The 30 days follow a deliberate arc: days 1-10 build trust, days 11-20 show expertise and proof, days 21-30 lean into the offer. The episode also shares six principles from 15 years of coaching content creators: keep it simple and follow the scripts; prioritize momentum over perfection; capture real moments rather than staging content; volume still wins; help first by writing to beginners, your former self, or someone you care about; and curate others' knowledge for your audience to become "50-mile famous." For now, post to Instagram and Facebook. Later episodes will add Google My Business, blog, email, and podcast. Download the free 30-day content strategy prompt in the show notes. Next episode: Part VI — building your referral funnel. Connect with Chris Cooper: Website - https://businessisgood.com/

    15 min

  3. Jun 5

    Starting A Single-Person Business: Part IV - Your First Marketing Post

    You've identified the problem (Part I), defined your product (Part II), and built your collectors (Part III). Now it's time to get people into the funnel and make your first sale. This episode cuts through the marketing noise — the gurus, the lead generation agencies, the funnel wizards — and focuses on what one person can actually do today to sign their first client. It starts with a simple explanation of the marketing funnel: leads (they know you exist), prospects (they've said "tell me more"), and buyers (ready to decide). Your job is moving people from top to bottom. The episode walks through setting up Instagram, Facebook, and Google My Business for your business, configuring Linktree to minimize friction, and then introduces the 5-1-30 — the simplest, most effective first marketing post you can make. The format: "I'm looking for 5 people who want to [one specific result] in the next 30 days. Send me a DM." When someone messages you: invite them to a conversation, listen to their problem, connect it to your offer, and ask if they'd like to start now. Take the payment and begin delivering. This should get you one to three new clients. Start with them and over-deliver, because the referral funnel in Part VI depends entirely on their success. Next episode: Part V — a 30-day content strategy built with AI, designed for one person to execute without making marketing a full-time job. Connect with Chris Cooper: Website - https://businessisgood.com/

    19 min

  4. May 30

    Starting A Single-Person Business: Part III - Building Your Collectors

    You've identified the problem you solve (Part I) and defined your first product (Part II). Before you can sell anything, you need to collect an audience. This episode walks through building your "collectors" — the places where potential customers find you, raise their hand, and give you permission to keep talking to them. We build the entire infrastructure live using AI. Five years ago, this setup would have cost $3,000-$15,000 upfront: a web developer, email software like MailChimp, and a marketing consultant. Today, the total cost is about $32 — a $12 domain registration and $20/month for AI tools. Hosting through Vercel or Netlify is free. Email through Resend is free for up to 3,000 emails a month. Facebook groups are free. This episode covers registering a domain name, building a one-page website with an email collector using a copy-and-paste AI prompt, setting up a public Facebook group with a strategic intake question, and defining the one call to action that ties everything together. The deeper benefit: when you build it yourself with AI, you understand every piece. You can change your headline at midnight, update your email sequence without a support ticket, and move at the speed of your own decisions. The barrier to starting a business isn't money or a team anymore. It's willingness to learn the tools. Free website builder prompt and Part II worksheet available in the show notes. Next episode: Part IV — your first marketing post and social media setup.

    24 min

  5. May 23

    Starting A Single-Person Business: Part II - Your First Product

    In Part I, you identified the problem you solve. In Part II, you're defining your first actual product — your minimum viable offer. Most people starting businesses make one of two mistakes: they build everything before selling anything, or they try to sell everything to everyone. Both fail. The solution is to define something specific enough to sell, simple enough to deliver quickly, and focused enough that you can tell if it's working. This episode walks through the 5-step First Product Exercise: Download the Worksheet: https://businessisgood.com/starting-a-single-person-business-part-ii-your-first-product/ Step 1: Write your transformation statement — "I help [specific person] go from [current painful state] to [desired outcome]." Step 2: Define your constraint — What's the smallest commitment that still delivers meaningful results? Time constraint (7, 30, 90 days) + scope constraint (one specific outcome). Step 3: Choose your delivery format — Done-for-you service, done-with-you coaching, or DIY program. Pick one based on how people are already trying and failing to solve this. Step 4: Name it and price it — Name describes the outcome, not the process. Price high enough to qualify serious buyers, low enough to validate demand. Step 5: Write the before/after promise — What they have/feel/know before vs. after. This becomes your sales copy and delivery commitment. Your first product will probably change. That's fine. But you can't evolve if you never start. Download the free First Product Exercise worksheet in the show notes. Next episode: Part III - Setting up your platform and building your audience. Connect with Chris Cooper: Website - https://businessisgood.com/

    17 min

  6. May 17

    Starting A Single-Person Business: Part I - What Do You Sell?

    This is Part I of a new series on building a single-person business from scratch using AI. Whether you're starting from zero or auditing an existing business, this episode covers the most foundational question you'll answer. Most people starting businesses ask the wrong question. They ask "what am I good at?" or "what should I sell?" The right question is: what problem am I solving? You don't sell a product or service. You sell the solution to a problem. This distinction matters because the thing you DO will change as you grow, but the problem you SOLVE stays constant. In this episode, I walk through two exercises: The Listening Exercise (for people starting from scratch): How to identify problems worth solving by documenting what people complain about, then filtering for frequency, willingness to pay, frustration versus resignation, and your unique advantage. The Product Autopsy Exercise (for existing businesses): How to map every product and service you offer back to the problem it solves, find the pattern, and cut everything that doesn't serve your core problem. If you think you're a personal trainer, you're locked in. If you know you solve the problem of people feeling weak and invisible as they age, you've got options: training, online programs, supplements, community building, coaching, retreats. The product is temporary. The problem is permanent. Next episode: Part II - Testing 2-3 solutions before you commit to building anything. Connect with Chris Cooper: Website - https://businessisgood.com/

    15 min

  7. May 10

    Self-Leadership: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Build It

    Every business is limited by its leadership. Good systems and operations are the floor, but the leader is always the ceiling. I've worked with over 3,000 entrepreneurs, and this pattern shows up everywhere: they can work hard, but they're limited by beliefs about money, mindset gaps, or self-doubt. When I tell them exactly what to do, they find reasons not to — "I need more evidence," "I'm too busy," "my situation is different." These are stories they tell themselves to avoid the uncomfortable work of growing themselves first. There's easy-hard (4am mopping, working weekends — visible labor) and hard-hard (cold outreach, publishing ideas — invisible courage). Nobody cheers the hard-hard. They might call you greedy. Self-leadership is a scientific process. You have to treat yourself as the ultimate experiment. It's the foundation for team leadership, peer leadership, and tribe leadership. If you can't control your emotions, no team will take your instructions. If you can't get over your fear of going first, you'll never get anyone to go with you. Go to leadyourself.ca/assessment — take the free test on the 8 dimensions of mental fitness. Then start the 180-day guided journey. Your business can only grow as much as you do. Connect with Chris Cooper: Website - https://businessisgood.com/

    10 min
  8. Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Chief: The New Four-Stage Framework

    Apr 26

    Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Chief: The New Four-Stage Framework

    Most entrepreneurs are giving themselves the wrong advice. Not because they're lazy, and not because they haven't read enough business books — but because the business advice industry doesn't sort itself by phase. So they end up doing the right things at the wrong time: hiring a fractional COO when they need ten new clients, building complicated org charts when they still can't take a weekend off, choosing typography when they should be making sales calls. In this episode, Chris Cooper walks through the four phases every entrepreneur moves through — and most get stuck in: Founder, Farmer, Tinker, and Chief. It's a preview of his rewritten book Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Chief — originally published in 2018 as Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Thief. The first three phases are sharper. The fourth is completely reimagined. You'll learn: Why building a business is a triathlon, not a marathon — and why the stroke that wins the swim will crash you on the bikeThe primary goal, the primary trap, and the exit signal for each of the four phasesWhy "Thief" became "Chief" in the rewrite — and what it really takes to build a movement instead of a companyThe six parts of a real movement — and why your competitor is never your villainA five-minute audit you can run on yourself this week to figure out which phase you're actually in There's also a twist in this episode — one the audience doesn't see coming. Stay until the end. Listen, subscribe, and share with the entrepreneur who needs to hear it.

    57 min
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About

One on one mentorship saved my business. So I decided to share that process starting with a 200-word blog post. Fast forward to today and my mentorship practice is a 21 million dollar worldwide company with a team of 50 professional mentors. Scaling from a tiny gym business to one of the largest mentorship practices in the world meant developing simple systems that could be taught easily to others. But building a movement requires leading by example, and showing people that business isn’t evil; that building wealth doesn’t require taking it from others; and that creating value lifts us all. It’s always been important to me to succeed the right way: without empty promises or slimy sales tricks. So the purpose of the Business Is Good podcast is to share the models that will scale a business FAST; but, more importantly, to help you build a business you’re proud to own. Visit businessisgood.com for more info and resources from the show.

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