Plan Your Start Podcast planyourstart

How do you go from growing up so poor there was sometimes no power or food in your home, to self-made millionaire in your twenties, to losing it all and then climbing back to build a product that now ranks as one of the top 6,000 websites in the world? Well that’s the rise, fall, and then rise story of RJ Garbowicz. Hear how he built a Social CRM platform that just crossed over 6M members and has a business model that gives 50% of revenues back to the users - hundreds of thousands of dollars paid out already. Now he’s pretty sure he can create 1 million millionaires on the platform.
 
SPONSOR: SecureStartup (https://securestartup.com) - Securely and efficiently manage all of the documents between founders and investors.
 
Opening: Allen and RJ discuss how long Allen has been following RJ’s platform webtalk and the exponential growth over the past few years, despite Goliath competitors in the space.
 
1:34 RJ explains his journey of getting webtalk to 6 million users and his 600k personal followers.
 
3:30 Allen talks about the comparison to LinkedIn and other social media platforms and RJ explains how webtalk takes those concepts much further (i.e. how about some basic CRM and contact management functionality); and rewards users for engagement.
 
5:00 RJ breaks down LinkedIn’s approach and business model and where that platform falls short.
 
9:20 Allen talks about a key incentive to using webtalk, the “sharing the pie” model.
 
10:20 How webtalk created massive growth utilizing a reward and revenue sharing system for engagement.
 
16:10 What is RJ’s message to entrepreneurs? It’s a long, hard road.
 
17:10 Opening Question: How determined and deranged must an entrepreneur be for success? What is the entrepreneur disease?
 
18:05 RJ says that entrepreneurs sometimes reach the end of their journey when they are too exhausted and need to exit. The bigger your goal, the more difficult. “How bad do you want it?”
 
19:25 RJ lists a plethora of negatives to being a startup founder when seeking different levels of success. Allen and RJ discuss how your decision to strive for achievement can affect your social life and those around you.
 
23:17 RJ talks about his history with entrepreneurship and when he knew he was an entrepreneur - it started in grade school!
 
24:42 Allen and RJ discuss the obsession that is making money while RJ talks about his struggle as a child growing up with very little.
 
26:00 RJ talks about his first established business in high school. He started a lawn care service through which he hired a couple of his friends to work for him.
 
26:40 The problems he experienced by being young and having expendable cash, were lots of dangerous vices. He attended military school shortly thereafter to help get his life back on track.
 
29:10 RJ lost his privileges to drive before he was even old enough to drive because he bought a car for cash at the age of 15!
 
30:20 Allen lists all of the jobs RJ worked over the years, and RJ learned he could do everything that the companies did and make more money. He harnessed his entrepreneurial spirit and grew ANOTHER business.
 
33:15 Allen referred to his previous interview with Steve MacDonald, and how some owners sell out too early and short-change both themselves and their investors. His suggestion is to strongly consider hanging on a little bit longer.
 
34:20 RJ took his check for selling his company and some time away in order to figure out what his next steps were. He learned through years of entrepreneurship, that the Internet and tech was the way of the future.
 
35:35 Started an online real estate business in 2005, where he was met with rapid growth but short lived success.
 
37:20 RJ tells how he survived his loss. “Do what you gotta do. I grew up so poor all I had to eat some days were condiments. I can survive this.”
 
39:10 RJ says “Once you realize you can survive with nothing. You are willing

In these challenging times, we need to hear from entrepreneurs like Christina Dills. After rapidly rising the ranks at Microsoft from intern to Channel Development Manager for all Latin America. Christina was a rising corporate star - but something was missing. She felt unfulfilled and that there had to be more to life, contribution, and work. So she began her research, made a plan, and Quit to Start. Hear how she did it and how she now prioritizes the mind and spirit in her daily routine as a startup founder with intention, gratitude, and exercise - resisting negative thoughts and negative energy. A daily work and life strategy to strongly consider in these times - and all times.
SPONSOR: SecureStartup (https://securestartup.com) - Securely and efficiently manage all of the documents between founders and investors.
Opening: “Life is Beautiful” written on the office wall behind Christina. She explains her belief that words have energy.
1:47 Discussion on gratitude and how it is the best cure for negative thoughts. Christina explains how energy frequency ties into living at your best.
3:45 Setting your intentions and how to manifest them. The best way to to predict your future is to create it through your thoughts and your intentions every single day.
7:20 Christina gives her recommendations to early entrepreneurs: always set up your day with intention, gratitude, and exercise.
9:00 Allen saw Christina recently pitch her startup. He asks her about the experience and she talks about why pitching is part of the journey and it's good for you.
14:55 Cristina explains how she became less and less fulfilled at her job and why she had to plan her escape.
18:00 Despite the amazing lifestyle and personal finances of her corporate job, she felt that she was missing something bigger in life.
21:28 Christina discusses how she self-funded her startup and then discussion on the downsides of taking investment.
26:40 Believe in yourself, who knows your business better than you? Whose two cents matter to you as a founder? The mentality of others cannot affect your vision.
31:40 Allen explains one concept in his book “you are a threat” and Christina talks about the lesson she learned from telling others about her potential start. Who can you trust? Who can you talk to?
36:50 Keep it quiet until you get momentum.
37:50 Finding the people that compliment you and you can trust.
40:20 Allen talks about confidence and the mindset behind its perception both inside and out.
42:08 Growth in business is the same as growth through exercise. Sometimes it’s painful, but you have to push through in order to grow.
43:30 Christina walks through her childhood and high school years, and the most valuable lesson she ever learned, her grandmother taught her - “education is your ticket”.
49:00 Christina explains that she has always had the entrepreneurial spirit and was always experimenting with startups on the side.
52:00 Your entrepreneurial journey is whatever you want it to be. You don't just magically become an entrepreneur, you grow into it.
54:00 Rising the ranks at Microsoft - she explains her unrelenting drive to learn.
57:00 Christina talks about the stress of life and how to heal yourself in a stressful environment.
1:02:00 Allen and Christina discuss the risks of entrepreneurship and how we weigh it against risk of not making the change or not taking action.
1:05:15 Allen talks about the hidden aloneness and anxiety of entrepreneurship - Christina talks about how she persevered through it.
1:06:40 Taking the leap. Christina talks about the moment she knew she was going to leave and start her company.
1:13:40 Discussion on facing your fears and gaining the escape velocity needed to become an entrepreneur.
1:15:16 Christina discusses detaching the tentacles of the workplace and the removal of comfort to embrace your future.
1:18:00 Christina talks about getting into the abundance mindset. The belief that good thi

How does one come back from an epic two decade run of entrepreneurial success - then to watch it slowly evaporate around you as market forces shift? This is the story of Brad Kugler and the building of an eight figure cash flowing business that brought him and his family the life and freedoms every entrepreneur dreams - then the crash, the fight for survival, and the epic comeback. Brad tells his rise-fall-rise story, how he learned more on the way down than on the way up, and how he’s now growing again in triple digits for 3 straight years - and disrupting an $8 billion dollar market.
SPONSOR: SecureStartup (https://securestartup.com) - Securely and efficiently manage all of the deal documents between founders and investors.
Opening: Allen and Brad talk about how they first met almost 20 years ago when Allen helped Brad create his first e-commerce website & order management platform.
4:10 Brad talks about how his big run started - taking over his dad’s VHS movie media distribution business. It had revenues of $2M with about 10-15 employees - by 2012 Brad had grown it to $25M and about 55 employees.
7:30 Allen and Brad talk about how what he's doing now with direct mail has parallels to what happened to him with the movie media distribution business - but this time he is the disruptor.
9:10 How does Brad's current business Direct Mail 2.0 work? Direct physical marketing mail traditionally has a very low response rate. With Direct Mail 2.0's technology, companies typically see a dramatic 25% to 50% increase in response rates - and with tracking capability they've never had before.
16:40 Brad talks about growing up in the Chicago area and how his great grandfather, an immigrant, started a window cleaning company that expanded to janitorial services over three generations, to his grandfather, and then to his father.
19:10 Brad’s father purchased a movie VHS media distribution business in Florida and by the early nineties, Brad took over the helm. The business did very well for the next 15+ years and Brad, with his brothers, were able to buy out dad.
25:10 He tells the story of when DVDs arrived - Wizard of Oz was the very first movie on DVD. Brad sold 30 copies in 30 seconds on eBay, that was his clear sign to transition to DVD from VHS.
26:25 Brad and his company achieved #1 DVD seller status on Amazon for several years. Brad once had a meeting at Amazon headquarters and Jeff Bezos walked in - one of many meetings to come with Jeff Bezos.
34:05 Allen asks Brad about what it was like making so much money in his thirties - and the incredible personal freedom, toys, and opportunities that came with the success.
41:30 Then a storm started brewing - a flat year in 2012, the first in a decade. Then in 2013 things got worse - the advent of online movie streaming had begun. The business began to free-fall over the next few years, unable to pivot fast enough.
48:25 Brad says he learned way more going down than going up - how to stretch cash flow, navigate legal, problem solve, etc. The company was forced into bankruptcy - but he was able to buy it back on the courthouse steps as a tiny shadow of its former self.
51:30 He stayed determined - he learned bootstrapping at the end of success, not the beginning like normal. He became profitable albeit small, never missed a payroll, never bounced a check.
53:10 The company limped along until he got a call one day from an ex-employee, top salesperson from 20 years prior. Her name was Joy and she now had her own massively successful direct mail print marketing company.
54:55 Joy said she had watched how Brad had fought and persisted in the business despite adversity - she was impressed and offered him to take over a direct mail software technology product she had developed in-house.
57:10 Being in-house with the larger company helped develop new features and feedback - but they needed to develop more freely to meet and capture the outside market. Brad talks about the i

Probably no other startup founder has made the cut at TechCrunch Disrupt, NPR's How I Built This fellowship program, and Babson's WIN Lab. But Lizia Santos is not like any other founder. She built a travel tech startup as a non-tech entrepreneur while simultaneously a mom to three little ones. But she almost lost it all, ran out of money and had to start over. She was ridiculously resilient and came back better and stronger. Now despite the pandemic, her travel platform is growing and expanding internationally. Hear her story, how she did it, what she learned and wants to pass along to aspiring entrepreneurs.
SPONSOR: SecureStartup (https://securestartup.com) - Securely and efficiently manage all of the documents between founders and investors.
 
Opening: Allen & Lizia are on opposite sides of the Florida peninsula. Lizia in Orlando near the Space Coast, Allen in Tampa on the Gulf Coast.
4:05 Lizia gives the origin story of City Catt. She was a journalist with a big idea for better travel. She is from Brazil and travel was always a big part of her life and family growing up.
7:10 One day Lizia and her Dad were discussing their passion for travel. Lizia had her ‘aha moment’ - how can people get access to local information when visiting a location where they don’t know people?
10:40 She did her competitive research and found no websites or apps that did exactly what she was envisioning - there were personal guide solutions but those did not include background checks. This did not feel safe and family friendly.
12:15 Discussion - what’s the first thing you should do when you want to start a software, web, or app company? Lizia describes how she did it wrong by jumping right in to build the product.
14:50 From feedback she would have discovered that her first version could have and should have been much simpler than what she was building.
15:50 Discussion on the non-coder founder dilemma of when and how to work with programmers.
23:40 Allen asks about the dark period when the project was not coming together, cash was running out - how did she cope and pull through.
26:05 Lizia talks about what she had to do personally to survive the difficult time - she brought back her exercise, diet, family, and faith to overcome the stress.
29:30 Lizia is not a proponent of going all-in on your business at the expense of personal health and balance. You need to be equally as intense with your personal life and health as you are with your startup.
30:25 You wouldn’t sprint the first several miles of a marathon - because if you do, you won’t finish the race.
33:50 Allen and Lizia are both TechCrunch Disrupt alum. Amazing experience, amazing connections.
36:10 Growing up in Brazil, Lizia talks about being a pastor’s daughter, a go-getter and a big dreamer.
41:35 Met her husband at a wedding in Boston. Stayed there and started a family until moving to Orlando, her son’s asthma was not good with the cold weather.
48:00 Discussion on how she inadvertently raised seed capital from family.
49:32 While building City Catt, Lizia lost her tech team and ran out of money, and without a working prototype.
52:10 She realized she needed help and mentors. She applied and got accepted to the Babson WIN Lab. There she was challenged to use her resources and creativity.
55:20 WIN Lab taught her to set short-term reachable goals - and believe in herself as a CEO. As a woman and a mom, you are a natural multi-tasker - use this skill in your startup.
1:01:50 The WIN Lab experience woke up the SUPERWOMAN inside of Lizia - felt she could conquer the world.
1:02:20 HOW I BUILT THIS fellowship summit opportunity came up - 16 fellows will be chosen. Lizia believed she could be selected - and then she was.
1:05:47 Met Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia at the registration sign in table and had a great one-on-one conversation - fellow travel tech founders!
1:08:30 Lizia and Allen talk about the importance of being bold and taking chances

Growing up in a tough neighborhood and making it to college as the first in his family, Rodrick DeBose beat the odds. He received his bachelor's degree and with only $2,600 of debt - but decided he didn't want to work a nine-to-five. He wanted to work for himself and own his own business. So he worked his way up from valet to owning his own parking and shuttle business to now owning rental property and a personal training business and a financial consulting business - helping others stay out of bad debt (use good debt) and start businesses. Hear Rod's story and how he uses Instagram for business ideas and key connections - and how he retired undefeated in his short professional boxing career.
SPONSOR: SecureStartup (https://www.securestartup.com) - document management between startup founders and investors.
Opening: Rodrick is father of 3 girls. Allen & Rod met years ago. Rod owns several businesses and was a professional boxer for a short time - retired undefeated.
2:20 Discussion on good debt and bad debt. Rodrick talks about the difference and gives examples from his own life of business and asset ownership. He now coaches others.
6:30 Rod talks about the ‘bad debt system’ and helping people stay out of it - easy to get into, very hard to get out. Rod graduated college with only $2,600 in debt.
8:05 Rod talks about the difference between a business with few employees and businesses with many employees - and how he parlayed the profits of his parking and shuttle businesses into launching new businesses.
12:00 Discussion on starting a personal training business, the uncertainty of income and the required dedication.
13:55 Rod talks about growing up in Fort Myers, FL. He didn’t know how rough his neighborhood was until he went back to visit from college. Rod decided he didn’t want to be a statistic.
18:15 His best business role model growing up was his father who owned a small business.
20:12 Rod was the first to go to college in his family, he had to figure out for himself (no one told him or helped him) how to test, apply, and make it. Now he helps others like him figure out the process and not miss the window of opportunity.
21:52 Rod traveled a lot while in college to see the country, didn’t want to regret or have ’could have’s’ or ’should have’s’. Actually came back home for a semester and that was scary because often we don’t go back. He went back.
24:30 Rod graduated with a degree in Criminology from University of South Florida, but knew he wanted to be his own boss, didn’t want to get a job. He already had the entrepreneurial mindset.
28:10 He worked at a valet to help make his life expenses - almost quit the first day! Instead, he grew it and it became his first start up. Allen shares how many entrepreneurial friends he has that started in valet.
30:00 From valet Rod learned to be outgoing and dug deep to find the strength to expand his personality and his customer service disposition.
34:15 Influential people attend the Bucs games and Rod valeted for them. He was invited out to a game by a very successful businessman.
36:00 This person became Rod's friend and mentor. Follow up meetings included building a plan to start his business. He taught Rod how the successful use 'other people’s money’. Rod has used this technique with his recent home renovations and rental property setup.
40:42 He bought into a franchise of Super Shuttle and this was quite successful from a revenue generation perspective - gave him a breakthrough financially.
43:00 He exited this to pursue a business closer to his passion - he became a physical trainer and financial consultant helping others.
45:00 Rod decided to help others with the skills to improve their personal credit. Personal credit and business credit are extremely different and knowing the power behind each can improve your financial situation.
47:30 Most people who know wealth know the separation of personal and business assets and

What was it like to be on the ground floor of Toms Shoes, part of the early team at Spanx, and then leave to start your own textile technology company while a mom and raising a family? Well, that’s been the adventurous and inspiring life so far of Mary-Cathryn Kolb and in this interview she talks about her journey and the pursuit of big things. She shares advice and learnings from her career and talks about risk-taking and the insatiable, inescapable entrepreneurial mindset.
 
0:07 Allen and Mary-Cathryn are both from the state of Georgia - Mary-Cathryn from Thomasville, Allen from Savannah.
3:47 She lives in Atlanta now and has pitched and developed key relationships at the annual Venture Atlanta conference - https://ventureatlanta.org.
8:50 How do natural-born entrepreneurs see risk? Mary-Cathryn says “we don’t”. It excites and energizes us.
10:35 If someone had told her how hard it was going to be and all of the things that would go wrong - she wouldn’t have believed and would have kept going. That says it all about the way natural-born entrepreneurs process risk.
12:17 She lost a co-founder and most doubted the company could or should move forward. She never considered stopping.
14:00 Are you wired to be an entrepreneur or can you learn to become one? Mary-Cathryn has always known she was wired to be one. It’s her “north star”.
14:47 There’s a spectrum of entrepreneurship, the moderate risk end and the massive risk end of the spectrum.
16:55 If you go for high risk, high reward, you must be mentally tough and a little lucky. There’s either win or lose on that end of the spectrum, no in-between.
17:45 If you think you can be happy working for others, then by all means do that. There is too much romanticism in entrepreneurship as viewed from the outside.
18:40 If you are wired this way, to be a risk taking entrepreneur, then you probably don’t have a choice but to pursue it.
21:40 She explains how, since she was a little girl, there was never a question that she wanted to do big things and was always enterprising.
22:30 Allen & Mary-Cathryn discuss ‘failure’ and how it’s often celebrated in entrepreneurship but in fact ‘fear of failure’ is a strong motivator and failure should be avoided at nearly all cost.
26:28 Mary-Cathryn talks about growing up with a twin, her college experience at SMU, graduating and going to Los Angeles, then New York to pursue an acting and vocalist career - her childhood dream.
31:34 But it was feast or famine and it’s where she learned about ‘financial runways’ and frugality. She was offered a position with a major designer, so she relocated to New York - her first project was with Beyoncé!
38:35 While in NY her college friend from SMU, Blake Mycoskie, called and asked her to work for Toms Shoes on the ground floor.
40:45 Later, Spanx called, recruited to be one one of the first 30 employees. So she relocated to Atlanta, her husband enrolled at Georgia Tech for his MBA.
42:15 She explains how special the experience and culture was in the early days of Spanx - an amazing sisterhood amongst that early team.
47:10 But with time came new leadership and change. She didn’t feel the changes were best for the team and customers. She felt she had to speak up and take a stand. She knew she’d either be heard or be let go. She was let go. It was her Jerry Maguire moment.
51:20 Discussion on how hard it is for those with intense entrepreneurial mindsets to last very long inside of someone else’s company. And when she took that stand, she had no idea what was on the other side, no backup plan.
55:00 There was an intense emotional hangover after leaving, she needed a break to reboot, but knew immediately that she would start something of her own.
56:50 So brrr was born and with a strong commitment to product, company culture, and shared ownership.
58:50 Working with a polymer scientist and textile engineer, a ‘cool to the touch’ fabric (no