Today’s guest is on a mission to help small businesses and creative entrepreneurs tell better stories, find more customers, and create new revenue streams.

She helps small business owners craft video content to showcase their products and services and to grow their customer base with YouTube strategies designed to meet their business needs.

She left her job in marketing and advertising to build a company of her own. She is a bilingual podcaster (English and Mandarin Chinese), the creator of Feisworld Media (a monetized YouTube channel with 17K subscribers and over 50K views per month), Feisworld Podcast (with over 200K downloads worldwide), and Feisworld Documentary Series on Amazon Prime. She also teaches how to run better Zoom Meetings and Webinars and own and monetize content on YouTube via Feisworld Academy.

Dorie Clark has featured her in her best-selling book, “Entrepreneurial You” and Harvard Business Review.

Please join me in welcoming Fei Wu.

In this episode, we discuss:

• her thoughts on leadership: “Leadership means kindness. It means empathy and the willingness to learn and to fail - to fail hard and get back up again.”
• how she was the “creative director” for her friends growing up - including making Transformer costumes for her friends out of newspaper.
• her dream to create her own private school with fantastic uniforms. This came out of her disappointment with how the schools did not teach everyone to be successful but instead focused on one bad grade setting the tone for the student’s future.
• how she came to the United States right before her senior year of high school and the shift at such an important year, academically, for her.
• the wonderful impact her mom has had on her being a successful artist in a world that did not support that dream.
• the jobs she had to take in order to be sponsored and stay in the United States and how this helped her really start focusing on the teams supporting these very large brands like Tom Ford and Burberry.
• the difference between active income streams vs. passive ones.
• how she designed websites for clients and started her business while consulting for her firm.
• the decision to launch her business as an LLC as a way to protect herself and her business.
• her biggest challenge in running her business.
  the myth of independence.
• the importance of community.
• how she nurtures and sustains the outer levels of her network, including the software she uses.

Back in the summer of 2015, when I first started to seriously work on this podcast, I had a goal of reaching 100 episodes. Since I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into, that felt like a big hairy audacious goal. By the time I reached episode 100 I loved this medium, but almost gave up the show and started a new one. Fortunately, I stuck with this show and today, I’m recording episode 300!

To help me mark this milestone, I’ve invited my friend Blake Fly to interview me. At his core, he believes that appreciation is rocket fuel to create lifelong business relationships and he has built his career around this single idea. I interviewed him in episode 258.

We always have a fun conversation, I’m really looking forward to this.

Blake, thanks for joining me from your place in Toronto. Where do you want to begin?

In this episode:

• we take a journey back to episode one and how Robbie’s bio has drastically changed since then.
• Robbie reflects on why he started On the Schmooze back in 2015 and the podcast that inspired him to do so.
• Robbie shares some unexpected surprises while hosting his podcast.
• Blake gives behind-the-scenes insight of what happened when Robbie interviewed him on episode 258.
• listen to Robbie’s secret about having a successful podcast.
• learn why Robbie numbered his first episode 000.
• we dive into Robbie’s work ethic and how he acted and reacted to the first few months of the pandemic.
• Robbie shares a few regrets about the people he’s interviewed already.
• Robbie explains why he interviews 2 women for every man.
• we find out what’s in store for Robbie and On the Schmooze in the future.
• listen to Robbie’s process of handling pitches.
• how his interviews dive deeper than what a guest has planned to talk about.
• Robbie’s advice to his future self when he reaches 400 episodes.

Today’s guest has been dubbed authentic with a touch of badass.

She brings her infectious energy through storytelling and powerful, inspirational tips on and offline. She has served as an emcee and speaker on numerous stages and is the host of #tishatalks LIVE.

She is the Chief Experience Officer of Tisha Marie Enterprises, founder of the real estate company Property with Personality, a personal brand builder, founder of Social Connect PHX and Connecting through Community events, an international business mentor, and author of “What Are the Odds?: A mom shares her good, bad, and what the f*ck moments in life & business.”

Please join me in welcoming Tisha Marie Pelletier.

In this episode, we discuss:

• her thoughts on leadership: “Leadership is not about you. Leadership is about bringing people together.”
• trying to figure out how to find herself again after becoming a mom and being an entrepreneur.
• how joining drama club helped her build her confidence.
• knowing she was going to go into broadcast journalism even in high school when she was asked to do the announcements.
• understanding that she wanted to have a family and be there with them instead of living the typical journalism life.
• why the biggest shift was going from a W2 employee to having to take a few clients to small claims court for non-payment.
• her experience of working with business coaches.
• how she nurtures and sustains her network.

Today’s guest believes that authors change the world.

She works with professionals and thought leaders who want to write a book as a business growth strategy. She is the author of 11 books, including “On Your Mark: From First Word to First Draft in Six Weeks,” “Blog2Book: Repurposing Content to Discover the Book You've Already Written”, and “The Speaker Author: Sell More Books and Book More Speeches,” written with co-author Lois Creamer. She has helped over 200 professionals become published authors.

Through her creative energy, she helps her clients identify the right book to write, and develops a community of supportive, like-minded individuals who want to change the world--through the written and spoken word--one word at a time.

As a professional speaker with the National Speakers Association, she provides engaging programs and workshops to help audiences find their creative voice. She is adept at delivering high-engagement virtual programs and in-person workshops and retreats.

Please join me in welcoming Cathy D. Fyock.

In this episode we discuss:

• her thoughts on leadership: “Leadership is a combination of things. One is being a good visionary (having a vision of success). Another is having a strategy. The final thing is having a sense of impatience.”
• how she has been pulling things together and leading others since childhood.
• her very cool connection to Diane Sawyer and how she became a fan of hers in the third grade.
• her many jobs before stumbling into Human Resources, a career she held for 20 years, before becoming an entrepreneur.
• how she was referred to and later joined the National Speakers Association.
• how she was forced to develop the program on her process to write a book and how she got her first book coaching clients.
• how she found her business through exploring her passion and developing her skills.
• how she nurtures and sustains the outer layers in her network.