Unconventional Life – Podcast, Blog, Live Events

Author: Jules Schroeder

Ep97: The Ultimate Guide To Product Creation In 7 Steps

After I had my quarter-life crisis, I put so much pressure on myself to create a business that would leave a mark on the world. I threw dart after dart, willing to try anything to make a profit and a difference. I spent many late nights at my computer feeling stuck, overwhelmed, and—despite all my effort—making very little progress.

What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was thinking too big. To make a dent in the world, not every idea has to be elaborate, complex, and innovative.

Some of the most impactful businesses today are based on the simplest of concepts.

Take it from one co-founder whose back-to-basics business is solving a global health issue. His “magic” business idea? Soap.

Meet David Simnick, the co-founder and CEO of SoapBox, a personal care company on a mission to empower consumers to change the world through everyday purchases. For every bar of soap purchased, SoapBox donates one bar of soap to communities in need in over 60 different countries worldwide.

This week on the Unconventional Life Podcast, Simnick shares his step-by-step process behind developing SoapBox, from the days of brewing homemade batches in his college apartment, to ultimately donating over 2.5 units worldwide.

Below, read Simnick’s tips for launching your own product-based business.

1. Position Yourself As Unique. When coming up with the idea for your product, it’s important to consider how you will differentiate yourself from what’s already out there. What is unique or better about your product? Do you offer a more natural and sustainable way of producing an in-demand item? Do you offer higher quality at lower price points? Is there a hero story behind your company?

“Our unique selling proposition was about the mission,” says Simnick. “The mission is the reason why we started SoapBox. Great brands have authenticity and have a story and stand for something more than just, this is a great product. So why’s your product matter?”

2. Consider Giving Back. Giving back can help you gain. When choosing between two brands of equal quality and equal price, 90% of US shoppers are likely to purchase a cause-branded product. If you decide to align your company with a cause, Simnick says to make sure your donation model is significant and relevant. Give away a portion of profits that will make consumers feel good about supporting you. Communicate in simple terms how their dollars are translating to a brighter outlook. And finally, select a cause related to your product, like a buy-one-give-one of the same item. “Don’t plant trees if you’re selling potato chips,” Simnick jokes.

3. Don’t Skimp On Quality. While the positioning of your product is important, it can only carry you so far. The majority of your customers will buy your product for the integrity of the product. Ask yourself, first and foremost, does your product speak for itself? Do you offer unmatched quality that your consumers can come to know and expect from your brand? “We said, we need to be the best personal care company, we need to make the best conditioner that’s gonna restore and moisturize hair. We need to make an amazing, fantastic product,” Simnick says.

4. Refine Your Product Before You Launch. When you feel ready to take your product to market, check your list twice—because once you’ve launched, you’ve virtually only got one shot to make an impression on consumers. Plus, making amendments can require a long and arduous process, such as getting a new patent. “Take the time to really get it right before you launch because it’s hard to change your brand, it’s hard to change your design, and it’s hard to change the ingredients once you get started in the marketplace. If I could go back in time I wish that we were more thoughtful from the get-go about how we designed and branded our products,” says Simnick.

5. Get Feedback. A quick hack to help you nail your product is to elicit feedback from others. “Come up with a minimum viable product and test it out on your friends and family. After you’ve won their approval, the question is, can you get strangers to love your product so much that they come back to buy it again and again?” Simnick suggests.

6. Go After The Right Distributors. Where you sell your product matters. 85% of consumers say they prefer shopping in physical stores to shopping online. If you can land a deal with a major distributor, you can greatly increase your visibility and profits. Seek out distributors who attract a high percentage of customers within your target demographic.

7. Don’t Give Up. Simnick says if you’re having trouble securing a distributor, don’t give up—instead, be persistent. “It wasn’t until begging, pleading, calling, emailing, and literally showing up unannounced in their lobby so many times that Whole Foods was like ok, you are a crazy soap salesman, we’ll let you have one store,” he relates.

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This article originally appeared on Forbes.com

August 21, 2017
Ep96: Millennials, Here’s How To Use The Total Solar Eclipse To Your Advantage

If you haven’t heard about this month’s upcoming solar eclipse, you must be living under a rock.

Millions of people from all over the country are flocking to the 70-mile band from Oregon to South Carolina where the total eclipse will be visible for a brief few minutes on August 21st. Oregon alone is attracting one million visitors, with 30,000 concentrated at the Oregon Eclipse Festival, a one-week gathering of international electronic music and art.

So what’s with all the hype about this eclipse? Don’t eclipses happen every few months?

Eclipses do happen fairly regularly, but what makes this one so special is that it’s the first total solar eclipse in 99 years to stretch coast-to-coast across the United States, and the first to grace the skies of the lower 48 states in 38 years.

Besides eclipses being a rare natural phenomenon—arguably one of the most magnificent the earth has to offer—they are also believed to bring meaning and significance to our lives and can be an accelerator for growth.

What could the eclipse mean for us in 2017?

I recently spoke with one millennial astrologer and writer to get the scoop on what the eclipse could signal for us this August. Meet Tanaaz Chubb, the co-creator and founder of Forever Conscious, one of the most prominent mindful lifestyle blogs with over half a million monthly readers. Chubb is also the author of, “The Power of Positive Energy” and a contributing writer for the Huffington Post.

This week on the Unconventional Life Podcast, Chubb shares an astrological perspective of this month’s eclipse and how you can leverage it to your advantage.

Below, read Chubb’s tips on tapping into your maximum growth potential with the upcoming solar eclipse.

Solar Eclipses Represent A New Beginning.

If you’ve been considering ending a relationship or leaving behind a job that’s no longer the right fit for you, now could be the time to do it. According to Chubb, eclipses represent a time of transition as one thing comes to a close and another begins. You can capitalize on the upcoming eclipse by opening up a new chapter of your life, such as taking a new career initiative.

Ancient cultures like the Incas and the Mesopotamians considered eclipses an omen, while the Navajo regarded them as a symbol of cosmic balance and order.

“Eclipses or solar eclipses are usually points of new beginnings, so there’s something shifting,” Chubb says. “With the lunar eclipse we had earlier this month, something would have been calling you to wrap up, to cut something out of your life, and the solar eclipse that comes after it is about bringing in something new. That can be something physical but it can also be a new way of being, a new idea, or a new belief.”

Eclipses Can Produce Unusual Effects.

In the 1950s, Nobel Prize-winning economist Maurice Allais discovered the “Allais effect,” whereby gravity is slightly altered during an eclipse. Pendulums can be observed swinging faster and suddenly changing amplitude when the sun and the moon line up. Don’t worry too much about the Allais effect, because NASA assures us that there’s no evidence eclipses have any physical effects on humans. Psychological effects, however, are common—including stress, difficulty sleeping, impatience, and mood swings.

It’s a good idea to be prepared for the effects that can accompany the eclipse. To navigate the eclipse smoothly, Chubb recommends using controlled breathing to help soothe anxiety and regulate your mood. “Work with the breath, close your eyes, put your hands over your heart to connect to that inner you and take ten deep breaths in and out,” Chubb says. Science shows deep breathing tricks the neurons in your brain into thinking you’re relaxed, and alters your state of mind accordingly.

Eclipses Can Provide Emotional Insight.

Chubb believes the planetary alignment can cause us to experience subtle energetic shifts. “If the moon can affect the tides, and our bodies are made of 70% water, what do you think the moon’s influence is on the water in our bodies?” she says.

Chubb recommends to create deliberate space for yourself to feel any unexpected emotions that arise with the eclipse. With the potential for heightened emotions, the eclipse could be an opportunity for you to get more in touch with yourself and revisit past emotions that you haven’t yet resolved. If the emotion is painful, consider that you have the opportunity to greet the emotion with new compassion and presence than you ever have before, which can facilitate healing.

“Often our instinct is to resist the painful emotion or say, ‘I shouldn’t be feeling this,’ but it actually prolongs the emotion. It’s much better to say ‘This is how I feel’ and own it. Cry if you need to. It’s amazing how quickly an emotion passes when you just own it,” Chubb advises.

Enjoyed this post? Check out more of my tools to create a life by your own design.

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com

August 14, 2017
Ep95: Millennials, Stop Using Business Cards And Do This Instead

I can’t count the amount of times I have gone to events and passed out business cards. Despite wanting to network I never found myself getting real followup from people or actually making real connections or opportunities.

It wasn’t until I adopted a “no card” policy for myself where I decided I would stop representing myself with a 4×2 piece of paper and instead send them to engage with my free content that I started seeing traction.

Here’s why business cards don’t work—today’s consumers are smarter than ever before. 81% of consumers do online research before making a purchase, comparing an average of five competitors for 79 days before they buy.

If there isn’t an easy and quick way for them to get to know you, you will be forgotten.

This week on the Unconventional Life Podcast, I spoke to one woman who has mastered the art of introductions by using her video content to create an impressive client portfolio.

Meet Taryn Southern, a digital strategy consultant with 500k YouTube subscribers and 700M+ video views. She’s also a former TV host and producer for shows on MTV, Vh1, Discovery Channel, and Sirius XM, and an active advisor to the YouTube Creator Board, where she provides critical feedback for Google product teams.

Southern says the success of her YouTube channel has opened big doors for her professionally. Below, read her tips about creating attention-grabbing content that can help you stand out amongst competition.

July 31, 2017
Ep94: Millennials, Don’t Make These Mistakes When Starting A Business Online

Starting a business is easier said than done. While 66% of millennials say they want to become entrepreneurs, only 3.6% of all businesses are owned by someone under the age of 30.

Why aren’t millennials walking their talk? For starters, launching a business is notoriously risky. Nine out of ten startups fail, which, for prospective entrepreneurs, is a discouraging outlook. In addition, many of us often don’t feel supported or understood by friends or family.

I remember when I was 22, graduating college and starting my first online business selling feather hair extensions. My dad thought it was too risky and begged me to get a real job.

What most people don’t realize about failed businesses, is that many of them are preventable. The fatal breakdowns in startups are classic—whether it’s a cash flow deficit, an ineffective marketing strategy, or a flawed management team.

I recently spoke with Lena Elkins, a Tel Aviv-based millennial business coach and the host of the Facebook group “Millennial Go Getters,” a community of 15,000+ entrepreneurs learning how to strategize profitable businesses and overcome the common mistakes most millennials make when starting a business online. Elkins is on a mission to empower millennials to build online businesses that afford them a lifestyle of freedom and flexibility.

On the Unconventional Life Podcast, Elkins shares her top success strategies for new entrepreneurs to get started on the path to a promising business right away.

1. You’re Having Trouble Signing Your First Client. Elkins says she was able to sign her first client by joining relevant Facebook groups in the Tel Aviv area related to online marketing. She posted in each of the groups a short description about who she was, what she was offering, why she was qualified, and how anyone interested in her services could reach her. “Essentially I said, ‘I’m new to this community, I’m a freelancer offering social media services, Im looking for my first set of clients, here’s my experience, call me,” Elkins recalls. “I got my first client that same afternoon.”

If you’re unsure of where to start, a powerful first action step is to join Facebook groups related to your niche and post about your offering. Be brief and to the point, and be sure to represent yourself authentically.

2. You Don’t Know How To Enroll Your Ideal Clients. Elkins says sending a short cold email to your ideal clients can be extremely effective in enrolling them to work with you. “Identify your dream clients, find them online, look at their websites. Identify a few problems they’re experiencing, find their contact info and send them an email.” In line one, start with a personalized complement to engage them. In the next line, gently criticize them with something like, “I was looking on your website and saw some things that could use some tweaking.” In line three, give them a free solution to resolve the problem. And finally, tell them if they have any more questions you would love to help. “I’ve probably gotten a 95% response rate,” Elkins says.

3. You Aren’t Befriending Those Who Are Ahead Of You. When you’re first starting out, you don’t yet have the experience to inform high impact decision-making. But luckily, you can turn to others who do to keep you from stumbling and guide you to take effective action. Elkins says, “Identify people who are already a few steps ahead of you in what you’re doing and reach out to them. See how you can help them and build a relationship with them.” Having a guide can be invaluable. If you can create a win-win for someone to play that role for you, you can benefit tremendously. An added bonus of making friends with someone who has influence, is that they may eventually give you the opportunity to speak to their audience, which can help you get more exposure and ultimately sign more clients.

July 25, 2017
Ep93: A Millennial World-Record Holder’s Ultimate Guide To Goal Planning

Goal planning is easier said than done. 70% of people who set out to achieve goals never see those goals to fruition. I can’t count the amount of times I planned to get up early for a morning workout, spend less money on eating out, or bring to life my next big idea, only to come up empty handed.

But while most of us struggle to make our dreams and aspirations a reality, one small sector of the population is exceptionally good at it.

I’m talking about world-record holders. You know, those who set out to accomplish an impossible goal and are able to do it faster and more efficiently than anyone else in the world? These super-humans seem to have an indestructible strategy for making things happen that the rest of us could seriously benefit from, whether it’s in our jobs or personal life.

Meet Colin O’Brady, a pro endurance athlete who holds the world record for completing the Explorers Grand Slam—climbing the tallest mountain on each continent and trekking the last degree of latitude of the North and South Poles—in just 139 days. O’Brady is also a TEDx Speaker and the founder of Beyond 7/2, a project sponsored by Nike, Columbia, Sorel, and Prana, on a mission to inspire kids to lead active and healthy lifestyles.

This week on the Unconventional Life Podcast, O’Brady shares the mindset you need to achieve your goals in the face of life’s trials and setbacks. Here’s what he has to say:

Jules Schroeder: What’s one of the biggest obstacles in your life you’ve had to overcome?

Colin O’Brady: When I graduated from Yale with an economics degree at age 21 I decided to take some time to travel around the world. Unfortunately on that trip, I was severely burned in a fire in Thailand. My entire body caught on fire and I had to jump in the ocean to extinguish the flames, but not before 25% of my body was severely burned. Doctors told me I may never walk again normally.

Jules Schroeder: How did you grapple with that news, and how did you respond to it?

Colin O’Brady: It’s a story of resilience and recovery. My mother came to my bedside and said to me, ‘Your life is not over, you’re gonna do amazing things. What do you want to do?’ And I set the goal of racing a triathlon. Fast forward 18 months, I signed up to race a Chicago triathlon and not only finished the race, which was my goal, but I ended up winning the entire competition and beating 5,000 other participants.

It taught me that you’re gonna face some setbacks but it’s your mentality that determines how you move forward. I think all of us have amazing untapped potential and it’s thriving on the other side of this injury that taught me that.

Jules Schroeder: How do you execute on making your goals a reality?

Colin O’Brady: You’ve got the big idea, the aspirational project. Maybe you want to found a tech app and have a $100M exit. That’s the macro, so then you have to ask yourself, what’s the micro? Because it’s so easy to get overwhelmed by the big thing, like how am I ever gonna get there?

I was sitting in a wheelchair and hadn’t taken a single step in three months and my mom said, “Great, you want to race a triathlon, well first you need to figure out how to take one step,” and she grabbed a chair from my kitchen table and put it one step in front of me. And I took that one step and that was my success for that day.

I carry around a small rock that I have from the summit of Mt. Everest. It’s a reminder for me that even that tallest mountain in the world can be broken down to its smallest incremental parts, just small stones stacked on top of one another. Have that big aspirational goal, but then ask yourself what is that tiny rock, what is that first step out of that wheelchair, what is that first thing? If you stack enough of those things against one another, one day you’ll realize you’re at the summit of Mt. Everest.

Jules Schroeder: How against the odds, against the fears, and against the exhaustion, do you keep taking one step in front of the other all the way to the top?

July 20, 2017