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Business Machine: Learning from our mistakes
Episodes
Wednesday Feb 05, 2025
Wednesday Feb 05, 2025
Business Machine Website
Podcast Summary
In this inspiring episode of The Business Machine, host Brian Town sits down with Tyler Todt, a content creator, entrepreneur, and coach, to discuss personal development, health, entrepreneurship, and mindset. Tyler shares his unconventional journey from professional poker player to bank manager and ultimately to building a successful personal brand on X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube.
Tyler opens up about his struggles with health and work-life balance while managing a bank, his shift toward self-improvement, and the steps he took to transform his life, marriage, and career. He emphasizes choosing positivity, setting clear life priorities, and helping others grow. With actionable advice and compelling personal stories, Tyler highlights how discipline, mentorship, and generosity can lead to long-term success.
Book Recommendation:
Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink (Purchase here: https://amzn.to/3Q1zgi5)
Mindset Inspiration:
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield (Purchase here: https://amzn.to/3Q1zgi5)
Brian's Contact Information:
EMAIL: brian@michigancreative.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briantown1/
Tyler’s Contact Information
EMAIL: ttodtromp@yahoo.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-todt-660919b0/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@tylertodt
Tuesday Jan 14, 2025
Tuesday Jan 14, 2025
In this insightful episode of The Business Machine, host Brian Town welcomes Rachel Kennedy, the founder and CEO of Southern Lighthouse. Rachel shares her journey from a seasoned recruiter to launching her own business during the pandemic. With a focus on employer branding, particularly in the construction industry, Rachel explains how Southern Lighthouse helps companies attract and retain top talent by building compelling, authentic brands. She dives deep into the importance of LinkedIn strategies, managing time effectively, and embracing a guiding role for businesses. Through anecdotes and actionable advice, Rachel opens up about the challenges of starting a business, finding balance as an entrepreneur, and creating a lasting legacy for her family and clients. Book Recommendation: Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell (Purchase here: https://amzn.to/3W57vJ2) Leadership Inspiration: Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller (Purchase here: https://amzn.to/42bhfoC) Brian's Contact Information: EMAIL: brian@michigancreative.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briantown1/ Rachel's Contact Information: EMAIL: Rachel@SouthernLighthouse.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelkingkennedy/
Wednesday Jan 08, 2025
Wednesday Jan 08, 2025
In this compelling reboot episode of The Business Machine, host Brian Town sits down with Clifton Sellers, founder and owner of Legacy Builder. Clifton shares his inspiring journey from a rural Alabama upbringing and traditional career paths to founding a thriving digital marketing agency. With authenticity and candor, they dive into topics like building a personal brand, the importance of founder-led content, and the highs and lows of scaling a business. Clifton also opens up about his personal mission to break generational curses and leave a lasting legacy for his family and clients.
Book Recommendation:
Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara (Purchase here: https://amzn.to/3DXDlko)
Clifton’s Contact Information:
EMAIL: clifton@legacybuildergrowth.com
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clifton-sellers-b46a07244/
Tuesday Mar 19, 2019
Tuesday Mar 19, 2019
Author of the book “Personality Marketing: Join Your Industry’s A-List by Embracing Your Inner Nerd” and the upcoming book, “The Crisis of the Ordinary: What to Do If You Secretly Wish for More Than What You’ve Got,” Brittany has a passion for helping people remember how to DREAM BIG (and then giving them the strategic marketing steps to turn those big dreams into realities.
Mother of 4 and self-professed musical theatre and personal development nerd, she spends her days mashing her clients’ “inner potatoes” until they’re magically delicious.
Mission: Brittany wants to make sure that people know to figure out what you want as an entrepreneur, and then help them form a plan to make it possible. She then helps you learn what the market wants and how it aligns with what you want.
Mistake: Brittany struggled with remembering as a leader that this a business first, so hiring friends and family as employees sometimes made things more challenging, as it made it harder to say no to them. She also recommends to not tell your team everything that is on your mind because it may get confusing, and learn to filter your thoughts through a spouse or friend first before talking to your team.
Recommended:
Quote: "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Book: Working with the Law
Eat with: Tony Robbins
Can't Live without: Asana, Slack and Google Calendar
Contact:
Legacy: People will learn how to mash their "inner potatoes", and that mashing potatoes will become a common practice in households across the world.
Friday Aug 10, 2018
Friday Aug 10, 2018
Wednesday May 23, 2018
Wednesday May 23, 2018
Richard Chapo is a business lawyer in San Diego who has been practicing for 25 years. Richard advises small and large online businesses on how best to comply with laws such as copyright and FTC regulations. Richard is a massive hockey fan and avid traveler having lived in such exotic locations as Siberia. Richard can be reached through his website SoCalInternetLawyer.com.
Mission: Richard is dedicated to helping businesses grow by helping them minimize the risk of doing business online. This way, they can then focus on the aspects of the business that they originally started it for.
Mistake: He wishes he hadn't waited so long to take the risk and do what he liked rather than dealing with the higher stresses of a job he didn't love for a decade. He also warns business owners against starting multiple projects at the same time before seeing if their first one will pan out.
Recommendations:
Quote: "Never promise to do the possible. Anyone could do the possible. You should promise to do the impossible, because sometimes the impossible was possible, if you could find the right way, and at least you could often extend the limits of the possible. And if you failed, well, it was always impossible to start with." - Terry Pratchett
Book: Will It Fly?
Eat With: Elon Musk
Contact: SoCalInternetLawyer.com
LinkedIn
Legacy: He hopes to be remembered as someone who helped his clients grow and kept them out of trouble. He also hopes to be remembered by his family and friends as someone who, when bad times hit, he was able to be counted on.
Wednesday May 23, 2018
Wednesday May 23, 2018
Known as the “Olivia Pope of the Midwest”, Camille D. Jamerson is the Senior Principal Consultant as well as President and CEO of CDJ &Associates. CDJA is a boutique business management consulting firm that specializes in Strategy, Branding, PR & Content. She is also the Founder of a new lifestyle brand, The Camille Company which features a behind the scenes look at balancing your personal life and entrepreneurial ventures. Its tagline is #LetsDoLifeTogether.
Camille has been quoted nationally in the New York Post, USA Today, Yahoo Travel, Costco Connection, CEO Blog Nation, NCR and Successful Meetings. Locally, she has been featured in Crain’s Detroit Business, Hour Magazine & Metro Times.
Eventually leaving behind a 6-figure salary and longtime career, Ms. Jamerson formalized CDJ & Associates with nothing but faith, her confidence in her skill sets and her hand-picked team. The firm formally announced its opening at their 300-person black tie formal launch event and within 30 days of launch CDJA landed two major contracts and was sought after for proposals on numerous others. The company has experienced exponential growth ever since.
Additionally, Ms. Jamerson is an award-winning author of two books and a freelance writer of numerous published articles and white papers. She is a former international beauty pageant Queen and a nationally featured public speaker. Camille is also the founder of The Mogul Makers Entrepreneur & Leadership Symposium which is held in August.
Camille is certified through Harvard University, graduating with honors and receiving executive certifications in business, leadership, and management. She is also trained and certified through the Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA] for crisis and disaster management.
Camille loves the theater. She enjoys traveling both domestically and internationally as well as reading. Most importantly, she is a wife and mom and lives in Oakland County Michigan with her family.
Mission: She hopes to use her business management consulting firm to fill the holes of your business's needs, and to be the answer to your business's issues. In other words, she hopes to be known as "The Answer Woman."
Mistake: Camille wishes she hadn't traded her time for money. She wishes she had handled billing and invoicing better, and restructured how she billed people, as there were times she looked at her packages and realized it was too much offered for too little return financially.
Recommendations:
Quote: "In all thy getting, get a book."
"What you want is on the other side of what you won't do."
Book: Finish
Eat With: Richard Branson
Contact: Rima - Info@CDJAndAssociates.com
www.CDJAndAssociates.com
(401) 402-0754
Legacy: She hopes her kids and grandkids will look at what she did and know the price she had to pay to get there, and will respect the process and the risks it took to get there. They will then be able to respect and honor their own processes to accomplish what they set out to do as well.
Conference Event Details:
Mogul Makers Entrepreneurial & Leadership Symposium
August 2nd-3rd
Detroit Metro Area
CDJAndAssociates.com/MMELS-Symposium
Monday Feb 26, 2018
Monday Feb 26, 2018
A decade ago, Josh embarked on a one-man quest to stop spending so much freaking money on groceries-- and so transformed himself into America’s coupon-crusading “Savings Angel.”
With a little bit of his own PR fairy dust (thanks to his U.S. Navy journalist experience), he became an influencer with his digital consumer advocacy and lifestyle brand SavingsAngel.com which has grossed more than $6 million in sales with less than $500 spent in advertising. Yes, he literally dropped more $$ on toner for the office printer!
Today he's:
· A well-known influencer in the Startup PR space
· The host of an iTunes chart-topping podcast
· A syndicated newspaper columnist with a reach of over 1.1 million readers
· A sought-after keynote & workshop speaker
· Media guest clocking over 2000 TV, radio, and podcast appearances.
And NOW, he takes all the PR magic tricks, ancient wisdom and special sauce recipes that got him here - and sets them all free!
Mission: Josh is passionate about turning thoughtful entrepreneurs into media celebrities, increasing their authority, their influences, and their revenue.
Mistake: When he switched from solo practitioner to having multiple leaders under him, he had to learn quickly to take a step back and let his leaders make some decisions instead of making all of the final decisions in the company without listening to them first. He also learned to attract people who could fill-in areas of expertise, and also learned from his fear of selling and overcoming the lies he believed about selling to people.
Recommendation:
Quote: "A person is just about as happy as he or she makes up their mind to be." Abraham Lincoln
Book: The Miracle Morning
Eat With: Napoleon Hill
Contact:
UpMyInfluence.com
SavingsAngel.com
LinkedIn
Twitter
Legacy: Josh hopes to help everyone realize that they are the person that the world has been waiting for, and to help them take advantage of the resources they have to make it happen.
Monday Feb 26, 2018
Monday Feb 26, 2018
While early in his career, Jeff Sass was making B-movies. He has spent more recent years in the C-suite as a COO, CEO, and currently as CMO for .CLUB Domains. With a career spanning the entertainment, computer-game, mobile, and Internet worlds, he has written and produced for film and TV, and he has been a tech start-up entrepreneur. A graduate of Cornell University, Jeff is a frequent speaker on entrepreneurship, mobile marketing, domain names, and social media, and has had articles appear in FORBES, ENTREPRENEUR, AdAge, and many other publications. As the father of three, he has also been a prolific “dad blogger,” participating in influencer campaigns for brands including Intel, Sony, Ford, LG, Asus, and others. Despite this seemingly successful career, Jeff Sass is happy to admit that everything he knows about business and marketing, he learned from The Toxic Avenger.
Mission: Jeff is a passionate marketing guy who hopes to help businesses gain traffic to their sites by supplying them the best domain name extension for their business's individual purposes.
Mistake: He stresses the importance of having a backup plan for when Plan A doesn't end up working out. He also tells others not to wait and to trust their guts when it comes to certain decisions.
Recommendations:
Quote: "If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough." -Mario Andretti
Book: Good to Great
Eat With: Guillermo del Toro and Greg Glassman
Contact:
Get.Club or Names.Club
ToxicAvenger.Marketing For Book
EverythingIKnowAbout.Marketing
JeffreySass.com or JeffreySass.Club
Twitter
Legacy: Jeff hopes to inspire and help as many people as possible, including his children. He also wants his children to become good, happy people and good citizens. Mostly, though, he wants them to be happy.
Monday Feb 19, 2018
Monday Feb 19, 2018
With 20 years of Six Sigma and Lean experience in high profile fields such as government, pharmaceutical manufacturing, aerospace, and healthcare, Bernie has developed and fine-tuned his skills to bring effective process change to any and all levels of an organization. As a Six Sigma and Lean Black belt, and now as the CEO and founder of ProcessPro, he is taking his knowledge and experience and bringing it to all businesses who are striving to raise their business to the next level by creating consistency and reliability within every process.
Mission: Bernie is passionate about helping businesses create processes that make daily practices run smoother for every employee. This makes it easier for every customer to receive the same experience when they walk through the doors, and every new employee to have everything they need to start immediately.
Mistake: He hopes to show that people need to find a new process to fix problems in the business if the processes they are currently using are not fruitful. He also is glad he started being transparent in his lack of knowledge in various areas so he could ask the right questions to clients, therefore helping cement their new processes further.
Recommendations:
Quote: "What you permit, you promote."
Book: "The E Myth." "Traction."
Eat With: Oprah Winfrey
Contact: ProcessPro.net
Bernie.adams@processpro.net
Legacy: Bernie wants his kids to remember that they were loved, that there was someone who did everything he could for them, and that they can make this world a better place based on what he did with it today.