Failure Guy

Brandon has a very close & familiar relationship with failure. He's an entrepreneur with two exits so far, and plenty of strikeouts. He's an angel investor and former venture capitalist who even worked in Marketing at America Online. Brandon started his professional career in technology as an Internet pioneer in 1996 as the Founder/CEO of Worldwide Angler, Inc. Worldwide Angler was recognized as the #1 social networking and e-commerce site for sport fishermen on the internet which he sold to a large media company. He has taught over 1,500 entrepreneurs in his business and marketing courses. His top course is on how to write a business plan and pitch deck in just 13 slides. He has taught the students of successful entrepreneurs like Daymond John & Robert Herjavec (Shark Tank) and Grant Cardone. He regularly is a keynote speaker at entrepreneur, business, and marketing conferences.

Travis Lachner is not only a friend of failure but a friend of fearless innovation. He has done many outside-the-box web ideas like having the first night club on LinkedIn, which is way more fun than it sounds. Listen as he recounts his tumultuous journey through the MySpace days with his screamo band all the way through to his current jam which is helping B2B clients create engaging content for their audiences. He gives plenty of advice for how to stay creative in today's crazy internet climate, so don't sleep on this one!

Tracey Becca is a fabulous friend who does hilarious things out in the world. Her 'Terrible Advice' Instagram account has me in stitches on a regular basis. I'm very happy to be bringing her joy, warmth, and some of that funny bone onto the podcast and into your ears! As she says: "everything you want is attainable, the only limits that you have are the limits that you place on yourself".

Five-time Amazon best-selling author Shara Ruffin shares some of the most difficult times that she went through along her path to getting her licenses including 6-7 years of being a working mom with no transportation, failing her tests by mere points, and even losing 4 months of progress in Animal Crossing! She made it her mission to help social workers pass their Bachelor, Master, and Clinical Licensing exams with an astonishing 99% success rate. Now she provides inspiration, as well as mental health & social work test prep through her company Journey to Licensure.

My friend, and a breath of fresh air on LinkedIn, Chris Bogue stops by to say hello! Learn how he came into his own level of comfort after studying improv at Second City. He shares his struggles trying to fit as a non-square peg in a very square world, dealing with divorce, and lacking self-confidence. He's hilarious, genuine, and oh so great to have on the podcast!

Travis Chappell matches up podcast hosts & guests in his position as founder & CEO at Guestio.com. As a podcast host of the Build Your Network podcast, Travis has interviewed some superstars like Shaquille O'Neal, Grant Cardone, John C. Maxwell, and many more! Learn how Travis went from selling solar alarms door-to-door to owning his seven-figure business as he progressed through his many attempts at 'making it' in his entrepreneurial journey!

Are you a data head? Jordan Goldmeier is! We have a fantastic conversation that dips into everything from pushing Excel to the limit, failing in business, and becoming a digital nomad! He's a three-time author as well as a fellow Microsoft MVP. We also deep dive into Jordan's interesting tattoo of a hot dog which leads us to: What is the proper Chicago-style hot dog? Is Big Ketchup out to get Jordan? Are hot dogs a sandwich? Are hot dogs a taco? Are tacos a sandwich..? All these questions and more will be answered right here!!!

The voice & personality behind Deb's Den and former Playboy playmate & centerfold, Deborah Driggs shares her experiences on her journey to becoming a friend of failure, in acting, sales, and now in becoming an author! Her upcoming book, releasing later in 2022, 'Son of a Basque' comes directly from her grandfather and tells a story she's been dying to tell! Learn from her experiences getting rejected from audition to audition as well as experiencing quite a lot of struggle in her personal career and in the process of writing and publishing her first books!

Wendy Harris is an absolutely fabulous friend from across the pond. She hosts 'Making Conversations Count' which is a podcast that emphasizes creating long-lasting business relationships and she has loads of experience to back it up! A sales trainer and speaker with over 30 years of experience perfecting sales calls, she shares her insights into that world as well as follows me along the many meandering tangents that we discuss. I hope you enjoy the 'Queen of Conversation' as much as I did!

What started as a simple little obsession with Skittles has now brought Phillip Deason, aka k1ngrand0om on TikTok, to the tiny screens of millions of users! With over 110 million views and over half a million subscribers, the Royalty of Random has found some of his passion. But he's just getting started! While the conversation certainly does drift into randomness here and there, his insights into how to get seen on platforms like TikTok are super useful. I still have yet to record my first official TikTok, but I can only imagine I'll use a video from our discussion as a first attempt. Enjoy!