I really hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed doing it. Doug Cunnington, the guy I interview, has a remarkable story that even many Pros can learn from and something that may be the most important thing you can do.

Benjamin Franklin — ‘If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!’

In episode 1 of my podcast the first thing I did was work on a simple project plan with Spencer and Darcy because I know it can help significantly. That is why I am so excited about having Doug as a guest.

You see Doug is a project manager for a living and he has applied project planning to affiliate sites with clear results. Also incredibly less than a year ago Doug had never even touched a WordPress site, much less build an affiliate site that makes some serious money.

As you will hear though, none of what Doug does is by accident – he plans and executes his projects like clockwork and that is what I believe we can all learn to do better.

Highlights Include;

• Why project planning is so important
• How Doug went from zero to over $4000/month ($6200 in December actually – I interviewed him part way through December)

In This Episode You Will Learn;

• The story of a man who has a day job as a project manager and then decided to apply his experience to building online affiliate business.
• How project planning can help build your business – regardless of the project
• The fundamentals of rapidly building a successful Amazon affiliate website

Resources and Links

(1:35) Introduction of Doug Cunnington

(3:35) Why Doug chose online business

(4:10) Mentioned – Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income

(4:30) Mentioned – Spencer Hawes from Niche Pursuits

(4:50) Doug’s motivations

(6:30) Why Doug choose the Amazon affiliate path

(10:40) Amazon affiliate website success basics

(13:20) Keyword research, Traffic generation, Choosing a niche and other important considerations

(19:20) Longtail Pro

(22:00) Outsourcing content

(25:00) Building links

(36:00) Private blog networks and Jon Haver from Authority Website Income

(38:00) Why themes are a waste of time (initially)

(41:00) Niche Site Project .com – Doug Cunnington’s site

(46:00) How to get a link from Wikipedia www.nichesiteproject.com/cubiclefree

Want To Connect With Me?

Come an join in the conversation on twitter.com/cubiclefreeman

If you enjoyed this free podcast episode – Leave a review on iTunes. It helps in getting the word out and each review contributes significantly in where we show up in iTunes.

Please leave your review on iTunes!

Cheers,

Quinn

This week we get to meet John McIntyre, a guy who’s methods I have been applying to my own business.

I really wanted to share the story of a man who’s story I found resonated with me and I hope you too!

The other reason I am excited for you listen to John is is simple yet very effective approach to writing killer content.

Highlights Include;

• How the internet is changing the business world as we know it and how you can benefit
• The fundamentals of copy writing and how they can change your fortunes

In This Episode You Will Learn;

• The story of a man who’s world is changed forever when he travels to Nepal to do some volunteering
• What makes good copy work in order to generate more leads and sales

Resources and Links

(0:42) Introduction

(1:40) John McIntryre’s Story

(16:35) The fundamentals of killer content – the bridge

(20:50) Self education

(22:40) Failure of governments and banks, self education and the opportunities online

(24:45) Where do you start to master copyrighting?
Authors mentioned – Gary Halbert, Dan Kennedy, Claude Hopkins, Robert Colliers “Letter Book”

(31:35) 80/20 rule of copywriting

(33:25) Getting long term results

(37:40)  Find John at DropDeadCopy.com and the McIntyreMethod.com (the second link is a sales page and not an affiliate link)

Want More Episodes?

If you enjoyed this free podcast episode – Leave a review on iTunes. It helps in getting the word out and each review contributes significantly in where we show up in iTunes.

Please leave your review on iTunes!

Cheers,

Quinn

This week I start by asking the guys what they have found most useful so far in my process of coaching.

It is pretty awesome to see how far the guys have come in such a short time.

Highlights include;

• Project Plan – to ensure their project is on the right track
• Creating the Avatar – making sure they understand their target market
• Minimum Viable Product (MVP) – building the product the right way

Then I remind the guys of some of their goals and introduce them to the ghost of their business future if they choose not to delegate.

Alternately, I offer them the $5 challenge which I recommend for everyone.

Five Dollar Challenge: If you do not outsource regularly : Spend $5 on odesk, elance, fiverr on a task for your business. Pay particular attention to what you learn about yourself and how your business could be better off if you outsourced more often. (Affiliate Links! – Thank you)

In This Episode You Will Learn;

– The sad side of being an entrepreneur without outsourcing

– The awesome opportunity that exists when you outsource

– What stops people from outsourcing

– How just $5 can set on a path for success

Resources and Links

(1:30) Intro

(2:18) What the guys fell has been the most useful so far

(4:04) Jaime Tardy – Eventual Millionaire

(11:15) Outsourcing 101

(16:10) Take The Five Dollar Challenge Here – odesk, elance, fiverr (Affiliate Links! – Thank you)

(21:05) What holds people back

(22:50) $5 Challenge!

(28:55) 5 Steps!

Want More Episodes?

If you enjoyed this free podcast episode – Leave a review on iTunes. It helps in getting the word out and each review contributes significantly in where we show up in iTunes.

Please leave your review on iTunes!

Cheers,

Quinn

This week we tackle a challenge the guys face with fully understanding the opportunity they think exists but need to validate and define.

After sending out many targeted emails over past week they are concerned that they have not gone far enough to get an accurate understanding of the needs for the market they wish to serve.

To help with this we look at ways to contact and communicate with their target market while building a customer base for launch.

In This Episode You Will Learn;

• How uncovering a opportunity can also lead to buy-in from the target market or “avatar”
• Three ways to open the conversation with individuals in your target market
• Five elements an email should have to begin the conversation

Resources and Links

Template with Draft Example Email

(0:43) Foreword – Two Elements

(4:15) Introduction to “Uncovering the Opportunity”

(5:43) Main challenge

(8:20) Framework for how this work

(9:04) The angle

(10:32) Example 1 – Phone – Finding an angle

(12.24) Example 2 – Direct Mail – Finding an angle

• Sam Oven’s example from The Foundation (which my example was based on)

(14.45) Example 3 – Email –  Five elements

1. Subject line
2. Identify with them
3. Benefit
4. Establish credibility
5. Ask (be specific)

Template with Draft Example Email

(18:50) Planning the working and working the plan

(18:55) Have a plan

(19:50) Be clear about what you are trying to do

(20:38) The guys discuss where they are at and what their initial thoughts are

(24:15) Summary

Want More Episodes?

If you enjoyed this free podcast episode – Leave a review on iTunes. It helps in getting the word out and each review contributes significantly in where we show up in iTunes.

Please leave your review on iTunes!

Cheers,

Quinn

This week we see that Spencer and Darcy are facing some really tight time constraints.

To help achieve the guys goals we discuss Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and I provide a bunch of examples to get the guys creative juices flowing.

Then I ask some questions for the guys to set them up for success.

In This Episode You Will Learn;

• The time pressures associated with different markets
• The theory of MVP
• Examples to get you thinking about the opportunities
• Three questions to create a MVP in your business

Resources and Links

(2:30) The time challenge faced

(7:00) “Lean Startup” by Eric Ries

(7:40)  Introducing MVP

(11:40) MVP Examples

(15:00) Podcast Pat Flynn with Dane Maxwell

(17:30) Three big questions

• What would your Avatar need to feel to part with their money? (focus on the emotion)
• What would your Avatar need to see or have happen to feel that way?
• What are the minimal things your product or service could do to prove that a market exists?

(18.40) I ask, “If you had to get this out next week what would you do?”. Darcy answers

Keep The Good Stuff Coming

If you enjoyed this free podcast episode – Leave a review on iTunes. It helps in getting the word out and each review contributes significantly in where we show up in iTunes.

Please leave your review on iTunes!

Cheers,

Quinn

This week we find out that awesome things are happening  as Spencer and Darcy get an early win from emails sent out to their target market (Avatar) they identified last week.

Then we get stuck into the methodology of how they can create a compelling future, step by step.

Finally Darcy and then Spencer share there personal goals!

Its awesome to see what these guys are thinking and I love coaching them to achieve their full potential.

The really cool part – They can do it!

In This Episode You Will Learn;

• A big win that came from developing last weeks Avatar
• How to create a compelling future for yourself
• The core motivations of Darcy and Spencer (not to be missed)

Resources and Links

Create a Compelling Future Template

(3:05) Wins from week

(4:15) Maximizing the sales process

(5:35) Creating a compelling future

(9:25) Anthony Robins book “Awaken the Giant Within”

(13:15) Enjoy the journey

(14:40) Affirmations

(15:55) Darcy shares his goals

(19:50) Spencer shares his motivations

(23:00) What you can do

Keep The Good Stuff Coming

If you enjoyed this free podcast episode – Leave a review on iTunes. It helps in getting the word out and each review contributes significantly in where we show up in iTunes.

Please leave your review on iTunes!

Cheers,

Quinn

This week we discuss some wins for the week and get stuck into ensuring we are creating an irresistible service that people want to buy. The “avatar” or “one person” is all about creating a fictional person that is very real in terms of the market need for our service.

Get this right and you can generate more sales seemingly effortlessly.

This fictional person can also help guide many (potentially difficult) business decisions in a way that is most profitable.

In this episode, we kick off by checking in with Spencer and Darcy to see how their business plan is coming along from last week including a big win that resulted.

Then we discuss the all important avatar and how demographics are important but also (the often overlooked) psychographics.

After I discuss the avatar, the guys have a bunch of questions on how to get the avatar to work in their market.

In This Episode You Will Learn;

• The wins the guys have experienced – specifically from the one page business plan last week
• What an avatar is
• Why creating an “avatar” or “one person” is so critical
• How to the create an avatar
• The challenges faced in creating an avatar in our real life case study

Resources and Links

Competed Avatar of Darcy and Spencer 

Avatar Template

(2:00) Wins for the week

(2:35) Business plan clarified what really trying to do

(5:05) How to create an avatar

(6:00) Importance of both demographics and psychographics

(8:20) Why one Avatar is better then two

(11:28) Psychographic questions

(12:30) Questions from the guys

(13:45) Open questions

(19.55) Wrap Up

Help Others to Find Out About Us

If you enjoyed this free podcast episode please leave a review on iTunes. It helps in getting the word out and each review contributes significantly in where we show up in iTunes.

Please leave your review on iTunes!

Cheers,

Quinn

Well G’Day Freedom Seekers!

Summary

This week we see how the guys are facing massive challenges uncovered from the project plan and move on to creating a one page business plan. This episode will set the foundation for an incredible business that we can see is rapidly taking shape.

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go. Dr. Seuss

Before we get into the business plan however, I find out from the two guys I am working with (Spencer and Darcy) what their wins and challenges were for the past week. Two big wins came this week but also the biggest obstacle is faced as a result of the project plan from last week! (Sorry boys but thats what we want right?) At least now we are focusing on the right things. Then we zoom in on exactly what I think is critical at this point for their business and any business for that matter – the “one page business plan”.

In This Episode You Will Learn;

• Two big wins and challenges faced by anyone trying to succeed online
• How last weeks project plan can help you discover the right things
• The one page business plan – why and how just one page can be so effective

Resources and Links

One Page Business Plan – including Darcy and Spencers Notes One Page Business Plan Template 

2:50 Main Challenge

3:30 Win 1

4:30 End Goal

5:11 “Lean Start Up” written by Eric Ries

5:45 Win 2 13:00 The One Page Business Plan – Avatar – Strengths – Weaknesses – 3 questions to make incredible things happen – Money – Summary

21.32 Introducing “The $100 Startup” book written by Chris Guillebeau – The visionary founder of the  World Domination Summit. The WDS is also how I met Spencer and this podcast was born!

22.40 “Rework” written by Jason Fried  and David Heinemeier Hansson

Help Others to Find Out About Us

Please leave your review on iTunes! Cheers, Quinn

Well Hello Freedom Seekers!

Summary

In my first episode you will meet two guys named Spencer and Darcy. For the first few weeks at least, I will be working as a business coach with Spencer and Darcy to help get their business off the ground. The idea is that they build a profitable online business and you get to learn along with us. As you will see, Spencer and Darcy are two regular guys who work corporate day jobs but have big dreams and a big idea. Unfortunately they also find themselves in a bit of a rut chasm. When I first met Spencer for example he told me that he was trying to learn coding from scratch!

In This Episode You Will Learn;

• Meet Spencer, Darcy and me Quinn
• How to get your business moving in the right direction
• How to ensure you are doing the right things at the right time

In future episodes you will see that The Project Plan works really well!

Resources and Links

• Project Plan for Spencer and Darcy’s business (completed)
• Project Plan Template (Blank for your business to copy and make your own!)

1:05 We meet Spencer

13:35 We meet Darcy

22:00 I Introduce The Project Plan

Thanks to Jon from Authority Website Income who reminded me of the power of using project planning in your business.

I Need Your Help

Please leave your review on iTunes!

I guarantee I will buy you a beer (or wine or fancy coffee) next time I see you.

If you don’t want to leave your real name in iTunes, but you still want that beer or coffee just email me.

OK I know this sounds like a bribe – Thats because it is! Going to iTunes takes a minute or two so it is a little effort and I appreciate that.

Thank you so much for listening!

Cheers, Quinn

Transcript

Quinn: So hello and welcome to the first episode of Building a Cubicle-Free Business. Where I help uncover what it takes to build an online business so you can be financially-independent, make a dent in the world, and build a lifestyle of your choice. My name is Quinn and today I have with me two really special guys who I’ll be working with each week to help build their businesses from the early stages to a profitable one. And each week we’re going to tackle a subject important to them and the idea is that anybody listening or watching this recording can gain something really valuable each week that you can use to build your own business. Our main goal, really, is to make you guys some money. So let’s stuck in.

And so today, yeah, I really want to just introduce Spencer and Darcy and get to know them a little bit more, for you to get to know me a little bit more as well. What will be pretty fun, I think, is to learn a little about your business and discuss what some of the challenges are that you’re currently dealing with so that I’m sure they’re quite common for a lot of people and it’ll be fun to tackling and start making things moving. So this is a pretty funny story how we actually met in the first place.

Spencer: Yeah I think it was when we were on a trip to Portland. We didn’t even know we were from the same city and we were at the World Domination Summit which sounds like it’s a bunch of people trying to organize some sort of coalition to take over the world. It’s really kind of a business conference mixed in with a lot of different elements. It’s just a conference that kind of brings together a bunch of people with that same mindset of wanting to start or pursue starting a responsible business that’s going to make them some sort of profit in the long-term. But it’s also going to give back to whatever community that they consider themselves part of.

Quinn: So like social entrepreneurship.

Spencer: Exactly. But it kind of had its own vibe. It was a really unique conference and there was a ton of people from Toronto and found out that Quinn just lived down the street from where I was living. So we got talking and he recognized immediately that there was a fit and then I got excited about doing this whole podcast thing and so that’s here we are.

Quinn: Yeah it’s funny because I was looking for somebody like yourself to work with. Somebody that was driven that I knew needed just a little bit of a hand but was obviously going to succeed. So I was chatting to him and like, “Yeah so where are you from? “Canada.” “Oh you’re in Canada, I’m in Canada, too.”

Spencer: I was like “No way.”

Quinn: Toronto, I’m from Toronto. Yeah we walked out the same coffee shop and… Yeah it’s awesome. These guys, you’ve known each other for a while now?

Spencer: About five years.

Darcy: Yeah about five years ago, we both went to the same secondary and there’s an organization previously known as Scythe. It’s a global non-profit initiative that students take on. It’s now known as Enactus. And the dean approached me about starting, founding one of the chapters there, and in the process of that Spencer was actually one of the first, if not the first, member to join the organization. And we worked together there and been friends ever since.

Quinn: Yeah right on. And you guys both from Toronto and did you grow up here?

Spencer: We’re actually both from Kingston and so Darcy moved out here a couple of years ago.

Darcy: Yeah he kind of wanted to pursue his career path but it was—there’s not really very many career paths in Kingston because there’s only like a hundred thousand people there.

Quinn: You can help operate the jail into the education system. That’s about it, isn’t it or…

Spencer: Yeah there’s huge government jobs in Kingston but there’s not much in some of the other industries.

Darcy: Especially in technology which is like where I’d been headed. Even though my education is in marketing, I’ve just been driven towards technology the whole way through. I mean I was making websites to pay my way through school. And just finding out that making websites is actually something that I like which was not really the initial goal. And I’ve always wanted to live in the city. I mean it provides a lot of amazing things, and well since I was like eight years old, I decided that Toronto was where I was going to first move in to.

Spencer: That being said, Kingston is a nice city though. It’s gorgeous and it’s something that you definitely want to keep going back to and keep visiting because it’s one of the most beautiful cities I’ve been to.

Darcy: Absolutely.

Spencer: In terms of the career path, that I’m on right now, had to be the big city. Since Darcy and I knew each other, we got in contact. This brainchild’s actually just very very new. We’ve only really been talking about this business for, I guess maybe, a few months.

Quinn: That’s funny because I thought there was a little bit more involved in that which is it’s great.

Spencer: No it’s actually very very new. I had some courses that I was taking at St. Lawrence College. They’re always trying to kind of bring in some newer ways of delivering content. And one of the things they were doing is they were bringing in the software that allowed students to run this virtual business against their peers in the same class. And it kind of turned the lesson into a game and you really became motivated to succeed and to kind of beat out your competition which was your other peers. So it was a really good environment but what I noticed really quickly was that, all this software was built on what looked like old 90’s era platforms. There was a lot of time spent figuring out what you needed to tell the software to do to get it to execute your strategy rather than figuring out what your strategy needed to do and then just quickly putting it in the software. I recognized that early on and then I went and joined a team that went and competed in Colona which was the same kind of thing, different software. And I started to see this trend happening. It was good software. It taught a good lesson and it was really interactive. But I knew that there was more. And I knew that there was, you know, it wasn’t really that far away IT create something really really great. I was telling Darcy about this and I was saying, you know I know that there’s a way to create a better product out here. And then he immediately–.

Quinn: So Darcy’s starting to be part of the picture pretty early on.

Spencer: Yeah he was pretty early on. I just had kind of an idea in my head of like this is what it has to be doing and Darcy was like, “Well I think I know what you mean” and he kind of really had the visual aspect and the interactivity aspect happening and he’s like “Well but I don’t know what it needs to do on the back-end.” And I was like, “Oh I think it needs to do this” and we just kind of bounced off each other that way and that was the beginning of this thing. And I think that was maybe just past April or somewhere around then.

Quinn: I mean I think this is a really important point because—well certainly in my first business, it was a need that I could foresee that I was part of that I then turned that into a business. And I think a lot of businesses that succeed come from that. You can build businesses where you’re not in it but a lot of people, they find the opportunity just from their daily lives like and run with it.

Spencer: Yeah absolutely.

Quinn: And that was one of the things when I was just talking to you in the early—when I first met you guys is like, “Well you know what? There’s a required like you know what the pain points are. You know that there could be a better solution. That smells like money to me.”

Spencer: We’re hoping.

Quinn: Absolutely. From speaking to you a little bit more and what we’ll discuss here. And also I want to point out I find it interesting you guys are quite business savvy and also technically savvy in some respects. But you’re also from our conversations, I know that there’s some areas where we’re going to need to find people to help us out some critical points. So I just want to point out for people who are maybe tackling something like this themselves that you really don’t necessarily need the technical skills. I think you probably do need that entrepreneurial drive that you guys are talking about. Anybody who’s listening to this will know if they’ve got that or not. When we were speaking, what were you looking for? What were you kind of—or what are you finding interesting about what I was saying?

Spencer: It was interesting because when we met, I was kind of, you know, I felt like I was in a bit of a wrap because I knew that I didn’t have the skill in terms of the technical skill to create this product. But I knew that this product just needed to be created and that it’s just kind of almost within my grasp. I can see it but I just don’t know how to actually physically do it myself.

Quinn: Okay but Darcy’s a technical guy, why can’t you do it?

Spencer: Darcy got—when I met Darcy, he got a lot of the front-end done and again I don’t really know a whole lot about coding but I guess there’s a front-end and a mid-end and a back-end of pretty much every software. So Darcy’s really good at the front-end and neither of us is that good at the back-end. I could see that we were missing this integral piece and then I was like I don’t know how we’re going to get this done. And then when we had a conversation, you were saying, “Well I don’t know how to code either but I built my businesses by just getting, hiring other people to do the jobs that I couldn’t do.” And that’s kind of what sparked the conversation. And I was like, “How did you do that?”

Quinn: Yeah. There’s a bit that I’ve missed with you guys. I really want to know if I can pry a little bit and sort of understand your deeper motivations to be successful with this. Spencer, you want to go first?

Spencer: Sure. I first got my entrepreneurial bug I guess when I was running a student painting franchise in Ottawa. At the time, that was horrible. I did not do well at that. I did lose money and you run into a lot of challenges. At the time you don’t know much booking all these jobs and everything was great, and then suddenly when the snow melts and you got to pay this stuff, oh well that wasn’t there. That wasn’t there and now that looks about a story taller. Oh crap. So it’s—but it taught me a lot about dealing with stuff that you just couldn’t foresee and planning for that. It also kind of gave me that drive that I needed to know more about business. I needed to be stronger in that area. I came home and I ended up, because I had to work that off, So I ended up working for Pepsi for about eight months as a merchandiser which is basically a glorified term for a guy who drives all across the region and stocks people’s shelves for them and gets yelled at by its stores because the store wants you here and that store wants you there. And then not really told me that I really needed to be either my own boss or completely independent. I just did not want to go through that again. The company was good but there was so much being at the bottom of that totem pole that all this stuff lands on you. And then you end up having to do like a 12 to 13-hour day just to make status quo and there’s just nothing you can do about it.

So I decided very early on that I was not going to do that. I’m fine with working long hours but I’m not fine with that being my life. And so when I went to—came to Saint Lawrence College, I was immediately looking for something to get involved in. And that’s kind of why I was one of the first guys who joined Scythe and which now obviously is Enactus but I really saw it as something that was exciting, that we could actually build something and grow together as a group of students. And we did. I’ve learned a lot of through that process. Our faculty adviser was really, really part of that process in terms of helping us grow from when we started to even after we were part of the group. I’m still in contact with her and we still kind of talk about things and she helps me, guides me along my way.

Quinn: Finally you kind of got driven to make things work which then led to some success. You started to see how things could work.

Spencer: It wasn’t the first time I failed or the last time I failed. But it’s something that more and more I find myself driven to be that person who thinks of these like crazy, out-there ideas and wants to have those materialize. That’s kind of how I see myself I guess. That’s why I really just latched on to this business. It’s right up my alley in terms of what I really saw myself doing. It was my own idea. It was something that I knew that there was some sort of need out there for it. I didn’t exactly know what the need was, how big it was but I knew it was there. And I knew that I could get it started. That’s kind of what got me there.

Quinn: So like got your excited and then you guys started talking and I mean I think the lesson here or the take-away that I get is that the needs of entrepreneur are driven at a pretty deep level. And if you’ve got those in you, for me it was just simple. I sort of knew—I saw myself and even doing this podcast. This is my first podcast. I saw myself doing this podcast. There’s no financial benefit to this at this point but I see they will be. Also I’m doing it for other reasons. I want to carve something. I want to do something special in the world and not just want to be punching cards and pushing buttons. There’s more to it. I think when you start playing with that and exercising those muscles in filing and then just getting back up and trying again, good things start happening and you know. Darcy, I want to hear your story.

Darcy: Mine has an interesting start and it has a thank you to my first ex-girlfriend in college, first serious one. Coming out of a first-year college and the bad break-ups or whatever reason doesn’t make a difference. I was actually like pretty distraught and I’m trying to find things to do to get me motivated and pumped up. And I was really good at sound production. I was studying radio broadcasting at the time. And I’d spent years being a rapper and, yeah, producing like my own music. So I had really good experience with working with audio software. So I ended up taking out a position of product manager for the radio station. I would oversee all the students who were going to produce all the radio commercials. And that was my first managerial experience and leadership experience. And I realize in that experience also, I had my own radio show. I thought I could make a business out of my radio show. And figuring out later on that their copyright laws would incur that I would have to pay a minimum of $250,000 to United States and I was like, okay that’s not going to work.

So I was going through school and I was jumping on all different types of competitions, marketing competitions to find ways to lead myself or to prove I was good or something. I’ve also created more business plans. I put myself at enough positions of leadership and opportunities that the dean, a really progressive dean who is really trying to like get students to get experience not just to sit in the classroom, brought forward to me. He’s like “There’s this opportunity and I think you’d be one of the people that should start this” which was Scythe. I saw this opportunity and I was like, this is it. Because I’m not the person who likes going to school even though I did seven years of school. I was anti-classroom. I’m more of like let’s get my hands dirty. And I saw it as an opportunity to one, prove to myself that I could actually lead something that would be really hard and would have to actually achieve and the teams compete every year to kind of as a motivational thing. And if I could win awards, they have never been won before at a really fast rate, I could really prove to myself that I could do something amazing. Plus I also wanted to actually change the culture of the school because a lot of people were reporting to class than do nothing else. So then I was like, I wanted to show people you could do something else with your life.

Quinn: You’re a rebel.

Darcy: Yeah I just wanted to challenge it. So anyways, I did that and we were really successful there. Throughout doing that, I also, you know, making websites. I was doing it kind of casually and…

Quinn: Making some money.

Darcy: A little bit but not a lot at first. And then I was going in to a degree program and the price was going from like $3,000 a year to nine grand a year, all my expenses and stuff. I saw this opportunity that I’d start my own summer company business, like a funded program by the government. They gave you like $1500 up front and $1500 as an award if you complete the whole summer. And my mom’s kind of like this realistic person. Doesn’t like to take the risk and to me I’m like the kind of person like I want to prove you wrong, mom. And so I literally just kind of went to be like I can do this and prove to myself I can do it, I can make the money. And I did that and I’ve just been like more and more dedicated towards… You know, I’m an entrepreneur, I want to find that great opportunity to make something and Spencer kind of came to me with this project and I’ve been proposed by tons of people with different business ideas and what-not. Most of them it’s like, I don’t even know this would make sense. But this one, I was like yeah I see this and I see how I can give my viewpoint from US perspective and what-not and leadership there. And really drive something. We’re on the other side and Spencer really complements the things that I do not have. That mathematical genius mindset to be able to like if he wasn’t on the other side it wouldn’t go anywhere.

Quinn: That’s awesome. It’s interesting that you both recognize that you knew your strengths and you also knew your weaknesses at some level and you’re able to work with that. That’s really cool.

Spencer: I think that’s something that we learned through Scythe very much because we had a lot of different people on the team and it was constantly an exercise of trying to get things done. And at the time you have this huge feeling of like I need to know this, I need to know this, I need to know this. And gradually, we just kind of realized that and this was in a large part because of the coaching. We had a really hands-on dean. And we had a really hands-on faculty support. And their coaching kind of gradually got us to the point where we realized everybody has those different skills and it’s not so much about you necessarily already having all that skill. But it’s about recognizing when you do or don’t and making sure that the right person is on the right job and, you know…

Quinn: I mean I could not agree more I mean one of the strengths I have is that I recognize that I’m –. I’m an entrepreneur. I don’t do coding. I don’t do writing. Putting together this camera equipment for this was a struggle for me like serious struggle. I had to sit in the waiting room to rent some equipment today because they didn’t have it to buy. I wanted to just buy it. I want to buy it. Get it on. No, you have to rent it. You have to go to the other building and… My point is that you don’t need any skills if you’ve got the drive that you guys are talking about and you recognize that you’ve got some strengths and you got some weaknesses and you need to just fill in those gaps. You know what I find really interesting? Neither of you guys talked about money, making money. Which I actually think is a good thing.

Spencer: I don’t think money was really the motivation. I think–.

Quinn: I mean don’t get me wrong. I think we need to make some money here.

Darcy: There is a part of us which motivated to make money. But it’s got to be more than that because I’ve been around the internet for years, right? Since I was a kid, I’d been like paying attention to the internet more than like the average person was. I’ve known about all the get-rich quick schemes where you’re selling domains, where you’re making these fake websites that I’d like to blossom up and get revenue where people are ignorant and just don’t understand what’s going on. And if I was solely based on . . . .

Spencer: Is that what they’re doing?

Darcy: Yeah.

Spencer: If it was solely based on money, then I would have done that. There has to be something amazing being created and then you may have a reward for it.

Quinn: I mean if you look at anybody who’s… I’m constantly amazed by people that have done well in life, not just in business but in life. They’re happy. They’re fulfilled. They have a drive that’s it about you know what, it’s not a financial… It’s more of I want to do something special. We’re going to move on. I think we’d covered it really well. But we need to get to some of the issues that you’re dealing with right now and I want to leave people with something that they can use themselves in their businesses that is critical at the start of getting a business going and something that… Can you tell me what some of the challenges are that you’re currently dealing with?

Spencer: The good news is that we’ve got someone who’s willing to beta-test our product in kind of the wintertime, which is like January to April. They seem really enthusiastic about it.

Quinn: This is a professor?

Spencer: Yeah this is a professor that we have a really good relationship with and the bad news is we’ve got to produce that in a very short time-frame with no money. So…

Quinn: Awesome. That’s what we’re aiming for.

Spencer: And I guess the icing on the cake is now they must know how to do the back-end. And that’s where I was when I first met you not too long ago when I was like “Oh I don’t know. Not really sure where I’m going to go here.”

Quinn: If I remember correctly, you’re actually trying to learn how to do the coding.

Spencer: I still am.

Quinn: Okay we got some work to do.

Darcy: That will be an ongoing process.

Spencer: I don’t think I’ll stop trying to learn.

Quinn: No that’s cool. I mean in all honesty, the more you understand about it probably, you know that it’s going to be for naught. You’re using another communicator, people who are doing better.

Spencer: Yeah and that’s why I didn’t stop trying to understand it but…

Quinn: I’m joking. I do think though that that’s a critical element that we need to get outsourced. We’d have a couple of discussions to get to this point. And I think one of the things that I really believe is important for anyone starting a business, so they’ve got the idea and they want to just see if it’s going to fly and they’ve got some time-frames. Yeah maybe the time-frames are to make some money within a certain time-frame or to get to a beta position with their product or whatever. I think we’re at that point now based on what you’ve said. Like we know basically where the two ends are. We need to fill in the gaps.

What I really believe that most people should do and you guys really badly need—and this is what I do for all of my businesses—is start with a project plan. And a project plan and a lot of people will talk about all kinds of software that you can use. Backpack has a good one for project management. There is another one. You can draw little diagrams. But what we really need to do is to understand who’s doing what, when and what needs to get done within the time-frame so that we’re hitting the milestones along the way. And the project plan basically, it’s real old-school. It’s free and it’s just a spreadsheet and it’s color-coded. Like even I can work it. It’s like column A. I’ve got some notes here to make sure I say the right things but column A is the main activities. If it’s a complex project, this is a relatively complex project, you’ll break this into sub-headings. So, for example, it might be content or back-end and front-end. You need to break those down to separate little sub-projects almost. So it’ll still fit in within the main project and then underneath those, we need to de-construct what needs to happen.

The cool part about having a project plan is you can start to see okay so we need to complete the front-end fully before we can move on to this other thing. Or conversely we can see when—we can start this other thing because we know we finished that bit. Building a project plan is exciting because it enables you to start to visualize how this is going to actually happen. I honestly believe business plan forget that. Like we’ll do a business page possibly, I think that we should do that actually but this is more important. Because you have to see if your time-frames are realistic for a start or you know that you need to get this done in this time-frame or you’re not going to make your goal. Doing a project plan at this point is a little bit challenging because you have to make some assumptions about how long things are going to take and who’s going to be doing them. But it also helps you to realize where the real issues are that we need to start to work on and start to think about. So that’s why I say let’s get a project plan down immediately.

I started going through the columns and then I completely side-tracked myself but the columns are A, is the tasks that you’ll be working on. Next is who does it and knowing who does what when is awesome because you guys aren’t living in the same house. You’re not working together all the time. So you need to be able to know, okay Spencer’s working on this. Darcy’s working on this and we’re outsourcing this and we need this to be delivered by this date, who’s managing that person or what-have-you. So you can start to work in unison, start doing the right things at the right time. And this is the only way to really start to see progress with your business and also you’ll start to have those early wins and you’ll start to think oh okay this is leaning in the right direction of starting to, this massive project that I’ve got, if we’re doing the right things at the right time, it all makes sense. So it becomes quite empowering as you work through it. You’ll have to change it every couple of weeks.

You have to move, shift the time-frames, move things around. Missed that deadline, tried hard but it was more than I thought. Oh well. Move that. Don’t get upset about it. Let’s talk about it and then you just move the things around in your spreadsheet. The second column is who and the third column is instructions. So basically, really basically what it entails. And

Spencer: Man, that’s nuts.

Quinn: I’m going to give you guys a spreadsheet that I use as a template and I’m going to put it online for anybody who’s watching or listening and you can just download that spreadsheet.

Spencer: So you guys can put your notes down too.

Quinn: That’s right. You guys are going to fill out. I’m going to publish that as well so people can see a live case study. So I’ll have the blank one and you guys case study. Every project’s different.

Spencer: Yeah.

Quinn: And people just need to realize what important elements are of that, their particular project. That’s really it. You got your three columns. So if you’re listening to a podcast, you do not need to take notes and if you’re driving specially. You got your main activities, second column is who’s doing it, third column is instructions. And then each column after that is what the date of the week ending or week beginning whichever way you want to run it. If you guys are meeting on a Friday and you’re going over what you’ve done over the week and you’re trying to plan the next week out, then you just put it on that date and you structure around that. And this is exactly what I do for all of my businesses. Every week, on a Monday morning, I look at what’s on for that week. I know what I’ve got to do and then it makes it…

Spencer: So much more.

Quinn: You don’t mess around answering emails. You don’t mess around. You know what the critical parts of building this project are. So does that make sense?

Spencer: Yeah already actually I’m feeling like a little less anxious about it.

Quinn: Good.

Darcy: Say there’s some high-level like month-to-month like high-level concepts on what we’d need to do but not as detailed as that. I can definitely see where the clarity is. Especially the who’s doing what. We need to break it down to the week anyways. We kind of realized that but yeah.

Quinn: Cool. Let’s have some fun with it. Let’s get over the next week we’ll get your project sorted out and I guarantee you’ll start getting excited even as you’re doing it. You’re also going to get a bit freaked out because you’re going to see how much has to be done.

Spencer: Where all the holes are.

Quinn: Where all the holes are but that’s cool. You just got to realize that you need to go through that process and make a mental note that you need to or we’ll make an actual note that these are the critical areas that you need to look at.

I think this is a really important part that we’ve covered. And a lot of people, I don’t see them doing this. I don’t know why. But it seems like if you’re ever going to do anything on –. I do it for the smallest project because it just helps you to keep things on track. You know even if I’m just building a little website with content and I’m trying to make a little bit of money on the side from it, this is exactly what I do. And if it’s a big project, it’s even more important. I’m going to make the template available. You can go to CubicleFree.com/episode1, a numeral one to get that template. Other things we plan to cover off, some of the other things that we’re going to be covering in future weeks just to give you an idea. I mean this is a little bit loose but from our conversations I think they’re going to be pretty important. We’re now going to create a one-page business plan and it’ll be much easier after we’ve done this, go through this process.

The business goals and I also encourage you to do personal goals as well separate from the business goals. So that will be in one week. Understanding your target market is one that we have spoken about and you guys have already actually started working on that because of how important it is. And that’s great but we’re going to cover that. Getting money, there’s a money element that we talked about that we need to address. We’re going to nail that. Delegating and outsourcing anything but specifically in your guys’ case will be coding which is the hardest thing to outsource, if I’m honest with you.

Spencer: Lovely. That’s…

Darcy: Well yeah, well we kind of realized it because we’re also not like saying, we’re going out, “Can you code a general website?” That would be very common. This is a little bit more special knowledge.

Quinn: Just being realistic about our expectations I think is key here. And I’ve spoken to you guys about it already but doing some tests to people that we think we’re going to employ for the whole project so that you don’t get burned early. We expect that it’s going to be a challenge to make things happen. Obviously if we find someone awesome and they nail it the first time, that’s what we’re going for but coding is challenging because we’re dealing with often language barriers, technology issues. Sometimes they say they can do. There’s a lot of things there. So the minimum buyable products, the delivery of what you’re actually trying to achieve. I also want to get into mental or your masterminding and that could probably happen in a slightly later stage but it’s certainly something pretty powerful that I’ve been doing myself personally, more recently. But I’m finding to be incredible.

And that’s it. I hope you guys got something good out of today. I know most of it was about your stories and what-not. We’re going to probably focus a lot more on your business going forward. We really appreciate your time and we’re sure that everyone listening has enjoyed hearing your stories. I’m just I’m sure there’s quite a few there saying “That’s me.” I think you know .Feeling the love. So it’s great. It’s awesome. I really appreciate it. Guys, if you can make your way over to iTunes and give an honest review, I really appreciate it. It helps in the rankings and helps other people to see this podcast. If you’re watching it on video, head over to iTunes as well because you just watched or listened to the same thing anyway. Thank you very much and have a great week.

Prompt: You’ve been listening to Build A Cubicle-Free Business podcast. The show links and other resources mentioned in this episode can be found at CubicleFree.com.