Introducing Call Paul, a new show where I talk with small business owners who are dealing with this pandemic, the hard choices they’re making, and how they’re finding light and hope when it feels like everything else is falling apart.

Company of One

Introducing... Call Paul, a new podcast from me (and my friends at Mailchimp)

Shaunna is a sellout in an actually positive definition of the term: she paints how and what other people want from her. but this gives her the freedom to work from home, take time off and travel, and that is more valuable to her than just painting whatever she wants.

How to become a total sell-out

Ryan Oakes is a magician and mentalist who works with companies like Twitter, GE and Google. He’s been on Harry Connick Jr’s TV show and covered by Forbes and The New York Times and Wall St Journal. He’s also a smart business strategist who knows how to nurture business relationships to move forward in his niche.

The magic of fostering business relationships

Support-Driven Growth is a business approach aimed at shifting the customer support channel from cost center to critical revenue driver, which makes sense, since support staff are in direct contact with customers, all day, every day. Mo McKibbon leads SDG at Helpscout.

Using support to drive intentional growth

When happens when you create a profitable business, but in doing so, you realize it’s something you actually want to be a part of? Margo Aaron explains what happened for her, how she dealt with it, and how she’s going to avoid doing it again. There’s a difference, of course, between the business you could run and the business you should run.

How to build a business you accidentally hate

Knowing what “enough” is for each of us, and for our work, is a very liberating thing. What happens when we push back against this dominant business narrative? Lauren Bacon explains.

The radical subversiveness of building a lifestyle business

Whenever there’s a single narrative or single truth in business, it’s typically only truth for one group of people, to the exclusion of everyone else. Kate Kendall and I discuss.

You aren’t a legitimate entrepreneur if you haven’t raised money, right?

Channing Allen runs a website called IndieHackers with his brother Courtland. They’re a two-person team who advocates staying small and intentional growth. Then, one day, they got an email from the billionaire CEO of one of the largest tech companies on the planet to be acquired.

Getting acquired by one of the biggest companies on the internet

On the Pinterest generation and debt, enoughness, marketing and the changing face of expertise online.

A conversation with Cait Flanders, bestselling author and friend

AJ is the enigmatic founder of Carrd. He runs a profitable software business that focuses on the space between business to consumer and business to niche.

Finding space in business to niche

Abby Walker is the CEO of Vivian Lou. She runs a multi-million dollar physical product company from her home wearing sweats (and high heels).

Building a company that you manage vs building a business that manages you

Check out the book on Amazon or where ever you buy books, in digital, physical and audio formats. Visit ofone.co for more details.

Company of One the book is now available!

Today we’re going to hear from Laura Roeder, the CEO of MeetEdgar. It’s an online tool for folks to manage their social media content with more consistency and less time. Basically, it lets you queue up and schedule content for Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook - automating your social media schedule. Laura created MeetEdgar to scratch her own itch. She self-funded the development of the software herself, using money she had saved up from previous ventures. Since 2014, the company has gone from small and scrappy to slightly-larger-but-still scrappy. In this conversation, we’ll dive into the metrics that determine growth in her company, as well as the business reasons for being transparent about all her businesses internal practices, like hiring. Their team is currently 24 people, all of whom are remote workers. So I started by asking what, if anything, drives growth with MeetEdgar. Learn more at https://ofone.co

Laura Roeder is an open book

What if the real key to a richer and more fulfilling career was not to create and scale a new start-up, but rather, to be able to work for yourself, determine your own hours, and become a (highly profitable) and sustainable company of one? Suppose the better—and smarter—solution is simply to remain small? This book explains how to do just that. The Company of One book is a refreshingly new approach centred on staying small and avoiding growth. Not as a freelancer who only gets paid on a per piece basis, and not as an entrepreneurial start-up that wants to scale as soon as possible, but as a small business that is deliberately committed to staying that way. By staying small, one can have freedom to pursue more meaningful pleasures in life, and avoid the headaches that result from dealing with employees, long meetings, or worrying about expansion. Company of One introduces this unique business strategy and explains how to make it work for you, including how to generate cash flow on an ongoing basis. Learn more at https://ofone.co

An excerpt from the Company of One Book

It’s difficult for any one person to do all the things it takes to run a business, be an expert at all the things, and find time to actually get all the things done. It seems stressful to hold the belief that because you work for yourself, you should work by yourself. Learn more at https://ofone.co

Solopreneurism is a myth

Company of One explores what happens when businesses challenge the idea that bigger is always better. The show explores a conversation around what happens if growth isn’t the byproduct of success. It's based on the book, Company of One (forthcoming from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on January 15, 2019). The host, Paul Jarvis, is a writer whose work has appeared in Fast Company, WIRED, USA Today and more. He’s taught over 13,000 students through online courses and has worked with companies like Microsoft, Mercedes-Benz and Marie Forleo in design and online business consulting. The first season is 10 episodes and includes conversations with Laura Roeder, Jason Fried, Danielle LaPorte, Dan Provost, and Spencer Fry.

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Company of One

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