Career Advice: A College Student Interviews Me!
How do you build an exciting career? Does networking matter? Does it matter what you study? In this episode, the interviewing tables are turned: College student Danielle Kraidin asks me her most pressing career questions.
51m Dec 02, 2019
51m
S1 Ep122: How to Work With Family, Featuring Rebecca Minkoff
Most people work with family or friends, but is that wise? And what do you do when things go wrong? Celebrated fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff has plenty of insight on this, because she works with plenty of friends—and her CEO is her brother! In this episode, she explains how she balances it all.
23m Nov 25, 2019
23m
S1 Ep121: Feeling Overwhelmed? Remember Who's In Control
We strive. We hustle. We reach. And when we finally achieve a major victory, it can be... alarming! Because now the pressure is on even more. In this episode, we hear from writer Paul Kix about how he nearly buckled under the pressure of a high-profile book and movie project, and how a therapist's advice changed everything.
22m Nov 18, 2019
22m
S1 Ep120: Walmart's Huge Order Nearly Killed His Company
Nick Mowbray thought he had a giant hit on his hands. His young toy company, Zuru, had locked in a David Beckham-themed gadget and Walmart ordered millions. But as it turned out, he'd done everything wrong... and it would take many years to recover.
19m Nov 11, 2019
19m
S1 Ep119: To Build A More Inclusive Culture, Look to... Genghis Khan?
How do you build a great company culture? You don’t lead by example. That’s what Ben Horowitz learned. He's one of Silicon Valley’s most revered investors, but years ago was a CEO who couldn’t turn his company culture around. Today he’s developed a wide theory about how to do it—and in this episode, he walks us through a few historical examples (including the first Great Khan!) that have a lot ...
21m Nov 04, 2019
21m
S1 Ep118: Customer Service Special: Turn Haters Into Fans!
Sometimes customers are unhappy. And sometimes they're PISSED. So what do you do when someone comes at you in full force? In this episode, Jason shares his own secret to disarming angry customers, and then talks to customer service expert Jeanne Bliss about how to truly connect with your consumers.
26m Oct 28, 2019
26m
S1 Ep117: Can't Beat 'Em? Do What They Overlooked
What happens when your original vision just doesn't work? That's what happened to Jesse Wolfe, whose company O'Dang Hummus totally failed to place its hummus onto store shelves. This is the story of how Jesse rethought what his company does, listened to his customers, and came up with an entirely new way to reach retailers—and is now in 10,000 stores and counting. Learn more from our sponsor M...
22m Oct 21, 2019
22m
S1 Ep116: He Made A Big Promise. He Couldn't Deliver. Now What?
Robert Tuchman promised a client that he'd get 300 tickets to the Super Bowl. But with days to go before the big game, he only had six in hand. What do you do when your promise falls short? In Robert's case, you go all in to fix it. In this episode, hear how Robert turned his fortunes around—and then, tune in to his podcast How Success Happens, where he hears similar stories of success-making f...
39m Oct 14, 2019
39m
S1 Ep115: Change Your Name, Gain More Customers (Hello, Neighborly!)
When you change your company name, can you change the way you relate to customers? That's what Neighborly (formerly Dwyer Group) is currently finding out. In this, the second in our two-part series about name changes, we learn how the country's largest home-services franchise company is redefining how it relates to customers... all because it changed its name.
24m Oct 07, 2019
24m
S1 Ep114: Change Your Name, Inspire Your Employees (Farewell, Oath!)
Does a corporate name really matter? Yes, says Guru Gowrappan. And he should know. On this episode, we learn why Yahoo and AOL was merged into a company called Oath, why Guru changed the name to Verizon Media, and how renaming the company changed the entire company’s culture—leading to more sales, more collaboration, and a lot less drama.
23m Sep 30, 2019
23m
S1 Ep113: "Why I Stepped Down As Netflix CEO"
Is what’s best for you also best for your company? That's the question Netflix's co-founder and first CEO Marc Randolph had to ask himself. And it ultimately led him to rethink what he's good at—and what success looks like.
21m Sep 23, 2019
21m
S1 Ep112: Do Something New and Scary! James Altucher Explains Why
Entrepreneurs should be life-long learners. They should constantly develop new skills, even if they don’t know the ROI on those skills. And that’s why James Altucher—the former hedge fund manager who’s built and sold many companies—dedicated himself to mastering stand-up comedy. In this conversation, he explains why he kept pushing himself to try something difficult and often embarrassing, and ...
44m Sep 16, 2019
44m
S1 Ep111: Bobbi Brown's Secret: Fewer Meetings, More Doing!
What do you do for a second act, when your first act literally changed an industry? That was the question facing makeup powerhouse Bobbi Brown, whose simple line of lipsticks blossomed into the billion-dollar company Bobbi Brown Cosmetics. She left it in 2016 with no plans for what to do next. But she’s since found an answer and the second act isn’t really so different from the first act, she s...
26m Sep 09, 2019
26m
S1 Ep110: Make Change Before You're Forced To
Change will come to every business, but there’s an irony to it: The best time to embrace change is when you see it coming from far away -- when you still have time to plan, and when you aren’t hurting. On this episode, I make my case for making change, and then talk actor Justin Klosky, who switched careers and became a professional organizer.
24m Sep 02, 2019
24m
S1 Ep109: How to Score With Influencers
Influencers can be a valuable marketing tool: Get your product into their hands, and they might send waves of new fans your way. But how do you actually do that? We talk to Will Ahmed, founder and CEO of a wearable fitness device called Whoop, whose product was almost immediately embraced by the world’s top athletes.
19m Aug 26, 2019
19m
S1 Ep108: Are You Giving Customers Too Much Choice?
Can you give your customers too much choice? Vanessa Van Edwards learned that the answer is yes. She used to sell lots of different courses online, but eventually decided to throw them all away. The result was crazy: Profits spiked! Hear more. Thanks to our sponsors: Blip Billboards: Sign up for a free account & get a $25 credit at blipbillboards.com/problemsolvers iDashboards: To learn more...
26m Aug 19, 2019
26m
S1 Ep107: Not Everyone Is A Leader... And That's OK!
In this episode, leadership expert Scott Miller lays out a radical argument: Some people are just excellent individual performers -- and there's no shame in staying that way. But if you ARE going to become a leader, then it's time to think differently about everything. Thanks to our sponsors: Netsuite: Download your free guide "7 Key Strategies to Grow Your Profits" netsuite.com/problemsolver...
29m Aug 12, 2019
29m
S1 Ep106: The Benefits of Working With Family
It can be scary working with family! You're taking two of the most complicated relationship dynamics, and then intertwining them. So how do you make it work? On this episode, multiple entrepreneurs tell us the biggest challenge they've had working with family—and how they've overcome it, and built a stronger business together.
25m Aug 05, 2019
25m
S1 Ep105: How to Hire Better Employees: Scare Them
SwagUp CEO Artem Mashkov had a problem: His employees were miserable and making mistakes. But instead of blaming them, he looked internally—and discovered a hiring system that was recruiting the entirely wrong kind of employee. Then he made some big changes in how SwagUp hires... leading to sometimes strange interviews, where he challenges candidates to think creatively and tries to scare them ...
18m Jul 29, 2019
18m
S1 Ep104: How to Make Big Changes (Just Ask Rosetta Stone)
When a company is in trouble and needs someone to make change, they call Matt Hewitt. He's now the president of Rosetta Stone, and is in the process of rethinking the company's entire product offering. How does a guy like this operate? In this episode, Matt shares the three-step approach he takes to turning a company around.
17m Jul 22, 2019
17m
S1 Ep103: Is Fear Stopping You From Self-Promotion?
Right now, as you listen to this show, someone out there might be thinking about hiring or partnering with you—but they can't, because you haven't put enough of yourself out there. On this episode, we discuss fear and self-promotion with Kassi Underwood, an author and coach who focuses on overcoming fear.
23m Jul 15, 2019
23m
He Fired 70% Of His Staff, Then Rebuilt A Better Company
How do you regain your employees' trust? It was a question Eric Wheeler wrestled with after his company, 33Across, had to pivot and lay off 70% of his workforce. He needed to keep his remaining talent focused, and recruit new people to execute a brand new vision. So he tried something new: Radical transparency. He'd start sharing all the company's financial secrets. And it worked.
16m Jul 08, 2019
16m
S1 Ep101: Going from Entrepreneur to Executive, with NerdWallet's Founder
NerdWallet grew quickly -- within four years, it had hired 50 people and raked in a ton of cash. Founder Tim Chen thought it was going great. But then he uncovered a major problem: His company culture had gone rotten without him realizing it. And to fix it, he needed to rethink who he hired and the environment they'd come to work in.
16m Jul 01, 2019
16m
S1 Ep100: Episode #100 Special: How to Make a Podcast!
OMG we've made 100 episodes of Problem Solvers! If you're interested in podcasting, this is the episode for you: Host Jason Feifer is going to explain how he conceived of the show, how he makes it each week on a shoestring budget, and how any entrepreneur can jump into the podcasting game.
32m Jun 24, 2019
32m
S1 Ep99: Barefoot Wine Turned A Crisis Into Major Growth
Barefoot Wine is one of the largest wine brands in the world. But it was nearly destroyed in the very beginning, when it was forced to stop all sales for a month. Its founders panicked... and then used that suspension to create the greatest sales opportunity a young brand like theirs could ever hope for. This is the story of how Barefoot Wine grew by repeatedly turning errors into advantages.
21m Jun 17, 2019
21m
S1 Ep98: How to Become the Person Everyone Roots For
We’ve all done it: We see someone score amazing attention, or win some award, or snag the perfect client, and we wonder, How’d they pull that off? It can seem random. What do they have that we don’t? How did luck happen to break their way? I used to wonder this all the time. But now, after meeting so many entrepreneurs who have triumphed in so many ways, I see a pattern in their success. Here i...
6m Jun 10, 2019
6m
S1 Ep97: Cameo Bounced Back From A Massive PR Disaster
Cameo is an app that connects celebrities with fans for a very specific purpose: Fans can pay for the celebrity to film a personalized video for them. Growth was steady, but then potential disaster struck: A group of white supremacists tricked one of Cameo's most famous celebrities into filming a video with coded hate speech. Cameo knew it needed to fix this problem quickly, before other celebr...
16m Jun 03, 2019
16m
S1 Ep96: Can Sun-Maid Raisins Adapt To A New Generation?
Harry Overly got an unexpected call one day from Sun-Maid, the raisin company with the famous red box featuring a grapescarrying girl. It needed a new CEO—was he interested? “What is the appetite for risk?” he asked in response. Because Overly, a food industry veteran, knew the job wouldn’t be easy. Sun-Maid was in trouble: Raisin sales were down, and its brand voice had gone silent. What to do...
19m May 27, 2019
19m
S1 Ep95: Michelle Pfeiffer's Hard-Earned Entrepreneurship Lesson
Michelle Pfeiffer wanted the fragrance industry to change its ways. The fragrance industry said no. That's when she discovered what it really means to be an entrepreneur: If you want something done, you do it yourself. In this episode, Pfeiffer and host Jason Feifer (no relation!) have a conversation about her transition into entrepreneurship. It's one of the conversations that formed the basis...
31m May 20, 2019
31m
S1 Ep94: The Six-Step Plan for Success
Nobody can see the pathway ahead of them. We’re all blind. But the people who succeed are the ones willing to walk in the dark anyway. On this episode, host Jason Feifer shares his six-step plan for success (step one: start moving!), and then talks with Gregg Clunis, host of the podcast Tiny Steps, Big Leaps, about how to find the motivation and will to take those steps.
22m May 13, 2019
22m
S1 Ep93: Orangetheory Nearly Destroyed Its Brand
How does a company expand successfully? Sometimes it seems like pure luck—but it's not. In this episode, we look at how fitness franchise Orangetheory stumbled through its first expansion, hit pause, fixed everything, and then went on to open more than 1,200 locations.
17m May 06, 2019
17m
S1 Ep92: How Do You Convince Clients That You're Valuable?
Namogoo is an Israeli company that solves a problem most companies don't know exist. That became quite a sales challenge: Its founders needed to get clients' attention, and then convince them to pay attention to a problem they'd been completely overlooking. Here's how they did it.
14m Apr 29, 2019
14m
S1 Ep91: Why A Hit Product Turned Into A Flop
It’s the case of the mysteriously popular growler! The e-commerce company Huckberry sold tons of growlers during the holiday season—but the people who bought the growlers disappeared afterwards. They never came back to buy more products, which was very unusual for Huckberry. What was going on? The answer forced the company to rethink its entire marketing approach. (Here’s a hint: The buyers wer...
14m Apr 22, 2019
14m
S1 Ep90: "Kill Your Business With A Better Business"
What do you do when conditions change, and your business starts to fail? You could try to save the business. Or, you could “kill your business with a better business”. That was the strategy employed by Adam Schwartz, who killed his t-shirt business called BustedTees with another one called TeePublic. (And “kill your business with a better business” is a direct quote from him.) On this episode, ...
19m Apr 15, 2019
19m
S1 Ep89: The Terrible Lesson of Chain Stores
Be honest: What do you do when the world around you changes? Most people probably say they change along with the world... but few actually do. Most people resist. And resistance leads nowhere. That’s the big lesson of the rise of chain stores, a transformational event in American business that pitted entrepreneur against entrepreneur, and ultimately led to some big lessons in what it takes to b...
41m Apr 08, 2019
41m
S1 Ep88: Get What You Want By Providing Value, With Mazda's CMO
How do you get what you want—from customers, partners, investors, and more? You don’t just come out and ask for it! Instead, you focus on what THEY want, and how you can deliver it. In this episode, Mazda CMO Dino Bernacchi and host Jason Feifer (editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine) and discuss how this works, and why entrepreneurs and brands must always stay relentlessly focused on value.
22m Apr 01, 2019
22m
S1 Ep87: He Waited Too Long To Fire People
It’s a classic managerial mistake: You know an employee isn't working out, and yet you give them more time. You hope—foolishly, of course!—for some magical turnaround. And in the meantime, your company suffers from that employee's bad work. This is what happened to James Heller of the startup Wrapify, but at a bigger scale. On this episode, we learn what happened when James gave his employees m...
15m Mar 25, 2019
15m
S1 Ep86: He Waited Too Long To Fire People
It’s a classic managerial mistake: You know an employee isn't working out, and yet you give them more time. You hope—foolishly, of course!—for some magical turnaround. And in the meantime, your company suffers from that employee's bad work. This is what happened to James Heller of the startup Wrapify, but at a bigger scale. On this episode, we learn what happened when James gave his employees m...
18m Mar 18, 2019
18m
S1 Ep85: How to Treat Art Like A Business
Mike Casey is a young jazz musician, and his jazz teachers were blunt with him: Making a living in this business is hard. So Mike decided to approach his jazz career the way an entrepreneur would—by embracing tools like a CRM, testing out ways to optimize streaming music platforms, and seeking out the kind of opportunities that his peers hadn’t even considered. On this episode, Mike walks us th...
20m Mar 11, 2019
20m
S1 Ep84: Know When (Or When Not) To Quit
When things are going wrong, how do you know whether or not to keep going? That's the question that faced Kabir Shahani of Amperity, a company that, in its early days, missed a huge deadline and seemed unable to develop the technology it needed to thrive. Important, difficult questions had to be answered. Investors wanted to make sure their money wasn't being squandered. And in the end, Kabir l...
18m Mar 04, 2019
18m
S1 Ep83: Property Brothers Help 2 Cofounders Work Better Together
What’s the secret to having a great work partnership… with someone you’re also personally close to? That’s what we aimed to learn in this special conversation with the Property Brothers. We asked Drew and Jonathan Scott to counsel the husband-and-wife duo of Dean Praetorius and Kiki Von Glinow, founders of Toast Media Group. Kiki and Dean are actively learning to refine their working relationsh...
37m Feb 25, 2019
37m
S1 Ep82: The Best Employees Have Side Hustles
Employers often discourage their team members from having side hustles. That's an insane policy, guaranteed to drive your most ambitious and creative people out of your company. Here's a better idea: Think of flexibility as a retention strategy. On this episode of Problem Solvers, we make the business case for embracing your side-hustling employees, and then talk to Jack Taylor PR founder Jon B...
18m Feb 18, 2019
18m
S1 Ep81: The Dangers of Expanding Fast (and Benefits of Going Slow)
Numbers can be deceptive: Just because you have more customers, locations, or dollars coming in, that doesn’t necessarily mean your brand is growing strong and stable. That’s what Jill Salzman discovered with her company The Founding Moms, a collective of meet-ups and resources for mom entrepreneurs. At first, she wanted to be in every city. So she expanded rapidly -- and although her membershi...
16m Feb 11, 2019
16m
S1 Ep80: Groupon's Founder Gets Inspired By Failure
After Groupon, founder Andrew Mason launched a quirky audio-guide company. That new startup didn’t thrive--but in the process of developing it, his team discovered a brand-new idea that was way bigger and more exciting. Now it exists: It's called Descript (and fun fact: Problem Solvers is produced using this software!). This is the story of how one failed startup can actually lead to the succes...
18m Feb 04, 2019
18m
S1 Ep79: Every Investor Rejected Them. They Thrived Anyway.
It’s become a truism of startup life: To grow a company, first go out and get investors. But is that true? Does every company need investment? Not really. That’s what Eric and Sasha of the men’s retailer Buck Mason discovered, after they went out to raise cash and were rejected by every investor they met. It forced them to step back and rethink who they are as a company, and how they can thrive...
18m Jan 28, 2019
18m
S1 Ep78: How Do You Find Your First Customers?
How do you find your first customers? It’s a question first-time founders are often flummoxed by. But Keith Krach has developed a tried-and-true strategy—starting during his days at Ariba and extending into his current time as chairman of Docusign. In this special live episode, taped at Entrepreneur Live in Los Angeles, Keith explains how to turn a company’s first customers into valuable ambass...
27m Jan 21, 2019
27m
S1 Ep77: How The Points Guy Became The Points Guy
How do you turn a great idea into a great business? It’s an infinitely complex question. You have to build an infrastructure around that idea -- one that amplifies it and makes it compelling enough for someone to pay for. On this episode, we learn how Brian Kelly turned a grueling side hustle into The Points Guy, which is now arguably the most well-recognized and influential site in the credit ...
25m Jan 14, 2019
25m
S1 Ep76: The Downside of Going Viral
What’s it like when your company goes viral? Take it from Kristen Tomlin, the founder and CEO of a viral cookie dough company called DŌ: “It’s terrifying.” And exhausting. And it exacerbated every weakness in her business, including staffing, supply and production. We learn how she fixed it, and harnessed the kind of huge opportunity that may have sunk others.
27m Jan 07, 2019
27m
S1 Ep75: Customers Come, Customers Leave. Now What?
There are a lot of Uber-like startups out there—companies that connect customers with some set of service providers, such as cleaners, lawn care pros, or, in the case of Storyhunter, companies looking for video freelancers. But these companies all face the same danger: They're at risk of disintermediation, or being cut out of the deal. This is the problem Storyhunter faced, and solved. Its solu...
22m Dec 31, 2018
22m
S1 Ep74: Everyone Has Imposter Syndrome
IAC CEO Joey Levin told Problem Solvers host Jason Feifer that everyone feels like they're making things up as they go. On this episode, Jason dives deeper into that idea. At times when you feel intimidated, or worry you're not up to the task, or feel at a loss for the right answer, let this be your guide: It’s knowing that in actuality, nobody inherently belongs. Nobody is ready from the start...
17m Dec 24, 2018
17m