Categories: Articles

A New Kind Of Startup

Episode #315 of Six Pixels of Separation – The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Julien Smith (co-author of Trust Agents with Chris Brogan and the author of The Flinch) was downright mad at me. We have lunch on a frequent basis and we’re constantly slamming ideas and names at one another. It makes for a lively conversation. The other week, he was downright disgusted with me because I had never met Chris Guillebeau. Chris is the author of The Art Of Non-Conformity – Set Your Own Rules, Live The Life You Want And Change The World and the recently published, The $100 Startup – Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future, which became an instant bestseller. Along with that, he’s the co-organizer of what is quickly becoming one of the "go to" events for those trying to create a remarkable life in a very conventional world called, World Domination Summit (which took place at the beginning of this month in Portland, Oregon). This idea of non-conformity and unconventionalism is a theme that binds Chris’ life. He’s about to turn 35 and complete his personal journey of visiting every country on earth (out of close to 200, he has a mere 8 to go). While he’s never had a "day job," he seems to be doing just fine owning, operating and executing on many micro-businesses. He explains that his entrepreneurial history has ranged from importing coffee from Jamaica, search engine optimization in its early days, Google Adwords and Adsense arbitrage, to building a small publishing company while volunteering in Africa. He now writes and sells a product he calls, Unconventional Guides. Simply put, he’s a fascinating individuals with many business lessons that we could all learn from. Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation – The Twist Image Podcast #315.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.