The Skim - January 2020 - Skimming Pebbles on Water

The Skim – January 2020’s business inspiration summary

8th January 2020

Happy New Year. Can you believe it’s 2020 already?

Let’s kick off the year in style by delving into some dynamic entrepreneurial insights from some of the savviest people in business.

Austin Netzley

‘What we’ve got to do is start to master systems and use those systems to delegate and hand things over.’

Austin Netzley is the founder of 2X, a company which specialises in coaching six and seven figure-based entrepreneurs to double their business in just 90 days.

In this exciting episode of the Entrepreneurs on Fire podcast, Austin talks host John Lee Dumas through his process for quickly scaling up a business and discusses the lessons he’s learned through the course of his career.

For Austin, the first step in helping a business to scale is freeing business owners from minor day-to-day operational tasks so that they have more time to focus on growth-oriented activities.

Listen to more of Austin’s advice here.

Tyler Haney

‘It was on one of those recreationally paced runs that it dawned on me that there was an opportunity to kind of reframe activity for folk who weren’t pursuing it to be the fastest.’

Tyler Haney is the CEO of Outdoor Voice, a sportswear company that has grown rapidly, earning nearly $60 million from investors and employing around 350 people.

Tyler founded the company in 2013 after spotting a gap in the market for athletics wear for non-athletes engaged in non-competitive outdoors activities such as recreational running and walking the dog.

In this recent edition of the How I Built This podcast, Tyler recounts the story of how she set up her business whilst continuing in her full-time job, something which she advises other entrepreneurs to do during the early stages of business.

Listen to the rest of Tyler’s story Here.

George McGraw

‘We help communities without running water or flush toilets come together to develop safe, low-tech systems that get them the hot and cold running water they need.’

George McGraw is the founder of DigDeep, a non-profit organisation that works to ensure that all Americans and other global communities have access to clean running water and sanitation systems.

In this fascinating Forbes interview, George discusses some of the successful water projects that the organisation has undertaken, including one in the Navajo Nation where they helped the residents organise a community trucking system to transport clean water from central wells.

He also discusses future plans for DigDeep, which include using data to bring resources and visibility to US communities that are losing access to clean water.

Read George’s interview here.

Richard Jaffe

‘Success does not create happiness, happiness creates success. When you love what you do and who you do it with, you have a much better chance of being successful.’

Richard Jaffe is a writer, philanthropist and co-owner of the Phoenix Suns basketball team, as well as the founder of three businesses.

In this episode of the Playbook podcast, Richard discusses the advice from his book ‘Turning Crisis Into Success’ and the relationship between business success and happiness.

One of the most valuable pieces of advice Richard shares with host David Meltzer is not to be afraid of asking for help from others when facing a crisis – he sees this as a key entrepreneurial strength and effective way of overcoming obstacles.

Listen to Richard’s conversation here.

We hope our latest selection of business insights has got you fired up and motivated for the year ahead.

The Skim will return in February with more business delights. Until then, check out these related blogs: