The Leadership Stack Podcast

Sean: The next question is from Erika. I can't seem to relax as I'm always thinking of my business. How can I fix that? I understand where you're coming from because business owners, especially when you have a new business, it's exciting. When you're excited, you keep on thinking about that certain thing that you want to engage in and it's tough to not think about it. Right? And then there are als...

Sean: I want to, so I listed down so many questions in my head, as you write. Sharing your story about how you started up you know, as a, I could resonate with you so much because when I started SEO-hacker, some 11 years ago, I was doing everything and so were you as the CEO and founder. And one of the main goals is to, as you said, take yourself out and work on the business rather than in the bus...

Sean: I have hit some speed bumps on my journey to starting a business and I'm starting to feel discouraged. How can I keep pushing forward? Get mentors. That's the best thing. I mean, when I'm stuck in a rut, I actually ask mentors because they've been there, you know. These are people who have also struggled with the things that you are struggling with, or have failed where you’re struggling wit...

Sean: I wonder, word of mouth marketing is arguably still the best form of marketing that any company would have. That is kind of what you did right there for you. But when you look at a lot of companies, even the big ones, they don't have a word-of-mouth marketing strategy. They would have an advertising strategy. They would have a big idea strategy. They'd have an SEO strategy, which we both are...

How do you manage your time? I've touched base on this before. You don't really manage time. Time goes on, you can't stop it. You can't manage it. We have 24 hours a day. I don't have one second more than you do. So you can’t really manage time, what you can manage is your energy. You manage your energy. Make sure that you give a hundred percent of your energy to things that matter, things that ar...

Sean: Here's my next question for you. Marketing is something that we do and something that all business owners should do, but there is confusion happening, whereas people are thinking, okay, how am I gonna follow Vince's advice and tell who I am to other people without running ads. Do I need to spend on ads? And how can I spend on advertising when the pandemic is there, the lockdowns are there, w...

When starting a business, how much time would you spare for you to know that this business is scalable, or will it just be a waste of time, effort, and resources? For me, scalability is something that you don't really think about at the starting line. You don't think about that because you don't even know if you're going to succeed. You don't even know if you can stabilize it. So scaling it up is...

Sean: And one of the age-old questions that are often seen and often asked in Facebook groups now, especially for startup Facebook groups is, what's the difference between branding and marketing? Vince: Oh, okay. So not much. It's kind of like the age-old question. What's the difference between marketing and sales, in reality, they're all blurred. They are all kind of the same things. Essentially,...

How does it feel like doing SEO for years knowing every Google algorithm updates and intricacies of SEO? For those who are just starting SEO, digital marketing may seem overwhelming. What's your advice for those who are just starting to learn today? How does it feel like? It feels like you're a pro basketball player. I mean, when you play basketball, you just know when people are in certain places...

Sean: But before I let you go, I want to ask you one last question. And that is for those entrepreneurs or employees who have a side business or are thinking of jumping ship and starting their own thing. What would be your one big advice? Josef: One advice is extremely difficult for this question, but let's give it a shot. But I think if there's anything to prioritize and purely speaking from expe...

What are the best business books for you? I usually recommend Good to Great by Jim Collins. Good to Great by Jim Collins is one of the books that have really opened up my mind on how to take a good business and make it a great one, because good businesses are everywhere. In fact, I would say almost every business you see is a good business. Bad businesses just go down and shut down in a couple of...

Sean: I'm wondering now, how young are you really? Are you like - I don't know, I have no idea. You look so young, but you have such an amazing experience already at work. Josef: So I'm 29. You know, so I got the job at Penn brothers when I was 20's, my board definitely didn't know that I was 26 that's for sure. But they didn't ask so I didn't lie, they just didn't ask, which is great. Which is di...

Sean: From Niño, I’m 19 years old. I currently have three businesses – affiliate marketing, e-commerce, and local business. Wow, congratulations. Toni: Wow. Sean: It somehow hit a plateau. I'm in analysis paralysis. What do you recommend? I'm not sure why and how you hit a plateau, but I think it's about marketing. When your business hits a plateau, usually it's about marketing or product or servi...

Sean: Now I'm wondering you are also the managing director of Penbrothers with maybe more or less 70 people working with you. What are some of those lessons that we can learn from you right now? Josef: Yeah, so I mean a huge amount, right? I don't think Humble would be anything like if it weren't for those experiences in Penbrothers. So I'm very, very lucky and thankful to my co-founders at Penbro...

Any advice to people who are starting a startup?   Toni: Sean’s the perfect person to ask. Sean: The most important thing is cash flow. Make sure your revenue is greater than expenses. Don't let other people tell you otherwise that passion is the most important thing, sleepless nights’ the most important thing. It's not. It's cash flow. As long as your revenue is greater than your expense, you're...

Sean: Joseph, one of the first things that I usually ask my guests is the startup journey because that is one of the things that I find people super interested in, I am super interested in and I find that my guests are super delighted to tell us the story. So we'll start with that. How did you get the idea of Humble? Josef: The story of Humble is an interesting one because. It's not like there was...

What are factors I should consider before investing in anything? Toni: Okay, let's go back to the basics. We've said this first, determine your investment objectives. The second factor would be your timeframe. Are you going short term, medium term, long term? The third would be your risk appetite. Are you a conservative, moderate or aggressive investor? And then I would say the fourth would also b...

Sean: Now, the last question would be what do you do when you did your best to secure the first page of Google, top 10 results, you got your website, fantastic stuff. Get your social media platforms, edited it as best you could. And here comes a scandal that has your name on it. How do you get rid of that? Because we got people asking me that stuff. Well, not all the time, but there are those diff...

Sean: Is it better to save or invest? I'll let you answer this one. Toni: Well, normally we all start by saving first because that's how you develop the habit. That's how you develop the mindset of simply doing delayed gratification. And then once you've established the habit, then you can start investing. But again, like what they say, if you just put, if you save most of your money in the bank,...

Sean: One of the things that I'm wondering about, so whenever I pitched to clients about SEO, it's going to be all about them and the ROI cause so a lot of business owners, that's the bottom line that going to matter, you know. How much money can you give back to me if I invest in your company, in my SEO, what's the search volume that I'm going to get every month, and how much of that am I going t...

Sean: Where can I spend my money if I'm 13 years old? And if you're 13 years old, save it up, dude. I mean, if you have money as young as now that you've saved up. When you're as young as 13, the behavior is more important. The behavior, the mindset is more important because you're not yet worried about a lot of responsibilities if you're living with your parents. So just save as much as you can s...

Sean: A lot of people miss that out, don't they? When people search for their name or their company name, there's just stuff that gets in there that is not something that the person or the company would want in their brand. What led you to focus on being the brand SERP guy? Jason: And that's the interesting point. And that's a great question is from saying actually I didn't want the blue dog to be...

Is there a specific budget rule on how to save money? Toni: There's actually none, like we always say, personal finance is personal. In terms of the percentage of how much you allocate your savings, your investments, your operating fund, that's for you to decide initially. But they say, the old rule is the 50-30-20. Like 50% to your needs and then 30% to your savings and then 20% to your wants. Bu...

[00:00:00] Sean: Let's fast forward a little bit to the next company that you built. Why do you say that it was a very interesting time for you? You mentioned that you have 14 people you're working with you like them. They like you. What are some of the lessons that you learned from them? [00:00:16] Jason: Well, I mean the first company, I wasn't the boss, I was one member of the band who happened...

Toni: And following up, I have a question for you. So when did you start saying that, “Ha! Okay, so I am financially stable now in your point of life? Let's make it more personal, I guess. When did you feel that you are financially stable? Sean: Oh man, it was a journey. I remember when I wanted to get married and here in the Philippines, that means a boat load of money, right? Especially in the C...