Beyond the Pedway

Have you ever had one of those ideas that just won’t go away? One of those that gets ya real excited all the time?

That’s how PitchEngine was for founder Jason Kintzler. The idea consumed Jason so much, he went to an agency and asked how much it would cost to build his idea. Unfortunately, the down payment for the project was a bit more than Jason could swing at the time.

How did Vegas, some serendipity, and $3,600 allow Jason to bring his idea to life? Click through to watch my video interview with Jason and find out!

Almost a year ago, I interviewed Brenden Mulligan to learn about ArtistData, the website he founded to help bands and musicians update all their various sites and profiles across the web. I was impressed, because it was just him and a small team creating this amazing tool being used by tens of thousands of musicians.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one that was impressed. This past June, ArtistData was acquired by Sonicbids, a leading website for connecting bands and promoters.

How did Brenden create a tool used by so many musicians that one of the top companies in the industry needed to acquire it? Watch my video interview with Brenden to find out!

I first interviewed Josh Karp over a year ago when he founded The Printed Blog. The idea was to take blogs offline and print them in a weekly newspaper format where content was voted upon by the local community.

The idea didn’t work so well the first time around. Six months after the first issue of The Printed Blog was released, Josh had to shut the whole operation down due to lack of funds.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when I catch wind on Twitter that Josh is going to relaunch The Printed Blog with renewed energy, a new co-founder, and most importantly, a new business model.

What has Josh learned from founding The Printed Blog, shutting it down, and now relaunching it a year later? Click through to watch my interview with Josh and find out!

Dave Miller is a producer, writer, and director who, in addition to writing, producing, and directing feature length movies, owns his own production company. He also writes and produces his critically acclaimed comedy web series Assisted Living, now in it’s 5th season on Koldcast.tv.

I’ve been meaning to sit down and chat with Dave ever since I created Beyond The Pedway. When we finally got the chance, I popped into his office and chatted with him about his production company Mindlight Films.

As we got to talking, I realized many of his lessons from being a filmmaker could apply to creative entrepreneurs looking to start their own companies. Click through to watch my interview with Dave and see the 5 lessons creative entrepreneurs can learn from a filmmaker!

I met Annie Sorensen at Big Omaha (which is an AMAZING entrepreneur conference happening in Omaha every May that I hope to see YOU at next year). We chatted briefly but I wasn’t clear as to what it was she did for a living exactly.

After Big Omaha, I started following Annie on Twitter, but I still wasn’t entirely sure what her deal was. So, I convinced her to let me interview her and find out. As I suspected, her story is pretty interesting.

Annie worked in a corporate job for the better part of a decade. She actually only left that corporate job about 6 months ago. But she knew all along that was going to happen. And it definitely wasn’t something that happened overnight.

So why did she quit? And why does she think that you can too? Click through to watch my video interview with Annie and find out!

Have you ever worked at a job and thought “I could run this place better”? Robert Groth and Carter Robins did just that.

Robert and Carter are technical theater guys (not business guys). While working on a theater show 3 years ago and seeing how much the company they were working for was making off their work building the set, they realized they could make more money and do a much better job if they opened their own shop.

So they did. But how did two guys with a background in technical theater and zero business knowledge successfully open their own scene shop and become their own boss? Click through to watch my video interview with Robert and Carter to find out!

Laura Roeder used to be a web designer. She first worked for an agency and then ventured off on her own. But after awhile, she felt trapped in the web design industry and felt she was reaching the ceiling.

Today, Laura coaches small businesses on how to become famous. Not famous like becoming the next Paris Hilton, but famous like becoming the trusted go-to source in their industry. For most, the business of making people famous isn’t exactly the logical next step after being a web designer.

How did Laura go from a traditional “boring business” to building her own unique business model from the ground up? Watch my video interview with Laura to find out!

Todd Tue loves producing videos and creating films, so much so that he and some buddies decided to start a company to do just that. They didn’t have business degrees and knew nothing about taxes, business licenses, etc.

And like many entrepreneurs, Todd works from his quiet home in Chicago, where work is always just down the hall. So how did Todd and his buddies with film degrees start a successful company doing what they love? And how is Todd managing to achieve that coveted work/life balance?

Click through to watch my interview with Todd and find out!

Jun Loayza recently quit his corporate job to pursue his startup full time. A familiar story in these parts. But Jun’s different than most of us in that he’s insanely focused on what matters to him.

He doesn’t believe in multi-tasking and right now, he’s looking to get his company a successful exit in the next 3 to 5 years. But Jun’s not just doing it for the money – he wants to simply accomplish it.