Hey all! Welcome to the very first episode of the Go and Grow Podcast!
This episode is simply an introduction to the Go and Grow Podcast. It outlines what this podcast is about, tells you why I’m launching it, and provides more information about my background.
Because it’s a shorter episode, I’ve transcribed it below so you can give it a quick read if you’d like.
Thanks for listening!
Thanks for kicking off this journey with us!
If you enjoyed this episode, and we hope you did, please share it using the social media buttons to the left.
Also, please leave a rating and review for the Go and Grow Podcast on iTunes. It will help others like you discover the show more easily, and we’d be really grateful! If you’re not sure how to submit a rating and review, check out this blog post for instructions.
You’ll never miss another episode if you subscribe to the Go and Grow Podcast on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Soundcloud, or the podcast player of your choice, and sign up for our email list below. Just do it! 
If you have any comments or questions, feel free to post them in the Comments section below or email me.
Thanks again for listening and now go and grow your business!
—————
Episode Transcription
What’s up everyone, welcome to the Go and Grow Podcast, where we speak with entrepreneurs and industry leaders to learn how they launch and grow products and companies.
I’m your host, Mike Chan.
And right now you are listening to the very first episode of this podcast! This is episode 0. Not even episode 1!
This is the beginning of what will be a long, fun, and educational journey for all of us, and I want to welcome you and thank you for kicking this off with me.
In this episode, we’re going to talk about what this podcast is all about and why I’m launching it, how each session is going to go down, then I’ll walk you through my background and career so you can get to know me better and see how this all ties together.
Overview of podcast
Let’s start with an overview of this podcast.
There’s two parts to the name of this podcast, Go and Grow, that reflects what it’s all about and also what I’m all about.
The first part is “Go.” I am totally inspired by people who just go and do and launch things. I’ve launched a bunch of products at my past jobs, I’ve started a couple of companies, and I’m launching this podcast right now! I really love this stuff. The idea of taking risks, trying new things, and shipping something is really exciting to me.
So I’m going to interview people who have shown the ambition and courage to launch new companies, campaigns, projects, products, anything that moves the needle and has an impact, and learn why they launched and what they did to get their ideas moving.
These people can come from companies of all shapes and sizes; many will be entrepreneurs, others may be industry leaders who work for large international firms. And they may be in different roles like marketing, sales, engineering, product management, it doesn’t matter. As long as they’re doing and moving things forward. We’re going to hear their stories, why they believed they needed to launch, and what they did to get things off the ground.
The second part of the name of this podcast is “Grow.”
After you launch something, you need to feed it and grow it. There’s no such thing as “if you build it, they will come.”
So we’ll dig into the strategies and tactics our guests executed to make their initiatives grow, and the results they achieved. The idea is to learn actionable marketing and growth concepts from our guests, then take those concepts and be able to immediately apply them to grow our businesses.
In summary, this podcast is going to be about being inspired by and learning from people who are doing innovative work in launching and growing products and companies.
Podcast format
Now let’s talk a little about the format of this podcast.
Episodes will range from about 30 minutes to an hour. Each conversation is going to be a little bit different based on the guest’s background, but I’ll stick to a consistent format so you know exactly what to expect in each episode.
- First I’ll introduce our guest so you’ll know who she is, what company she works for, and what her role is.
- Then we’ll talk about her career background. We’ll dig into the decisions she made, her inspirations along the way, and how she got to where she is today.
- Next we’ll chat about a significant product, company, or project she launched, why it’s important, and the steps she took to get it off the ground.
- We’ll then talk about the actionable strategies, tactics, and tips that she used to drive growth of her initiative, and the results that were attained.
- Finally, we’ll do a Quickfire Q&A, where I ask our guest 5 questions in succession to get to know her better.
This will be a weekly podcast, and I’ll release an episode every Tuesday so you’ll get some inspiration and knowledge early in the week.
Finally, I want this podcast to be authentic and conversational. So I’m not going to do too much editing on each episode and you’re basically going to get the raw footage.
There’s definitely going to be ums, likes, and other filler in there, and maybe you’ll hear my dog snoring, but I hope not. Anyway, I apologize in advance, but I just want you to hear the real and genuine conversation with our guests.
Another reason for that is I’m not perfect and for me, hearing all the flaws is going to force me to improve and get better with each episode. And that’s what this podcast is all about – learning and constantly improving.
Why I’m launching this podcast
So why am I launching this podcast?
First and foremost, I love helping people. It’s really rewarding to me to assist people with their businesses, careers, and any other issues that come their way.
For example, I’m a volunteer organizer for Startup Weekend, where we put together events that help people launch their startups in 54 hours. And I get so much satisfaction in seeing people take the initiative to do great things and helping them get their ideas off the ground.
Podcasting will allow me to both help my guests communicate their story and expertise and help you learn something from them.
Also, I just love talking with people. I get so much out of meeting with others, hearing their interesting stories, and learning from their experiences.
Podcasting will definitely let me do that. It’s a really intimate, interactive way to have a great conversation, and I think it will also be a great way to connect with you, my audience.
My background
Now that you know what this podcast is about and why I’m launching it, I’ll end this episode with some info about my background.
I was born in Queens, NY and grew up there, Brooklyn, and Old Bridge, NJ.
I attended undergrad at Lehigh University and received my Bachelor’s in Material Science and Engineering. Solid education, but I never used that degree one day in my career. Just didn’t want to be in lab all my life.
I went to grad school part 1 at Georgia Tech and got my Master’s in Industrial Engineering, which thankfully I did use in my career for some time.
In my first career, I was a consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area, working on operations and healthcare strategy projects.
After being a consultant for about 4 years, I hit a bit of a quarter-life crisis and had no idea what to do with my career and life.
So at that point I decided to pursue my passion and switch to a career in sports business.
I attended grad school (again) and got my MBA from NYU Stern to help me transition to a career in sports marketing.
After business school, I obtained what really was my dream job at the time and worked in the Marketing department of the Washington Capitals, DC’s pro hockey team, for almost 5 years.
I helped the Caps launch their mobile apps and them to over 100,000 users, implemented sales and marketing technology, ran advertising and was overall responsible for strategic and revenue marketing.
That was an amazing job where I learned so much and really fell in love with marketing, but after a few years, the job ran its course and there was just something missing.
I was using all of these cool technologies, but there was something inside me that wanted to create technology, instead of just use it. And I really wanted to launch my own business and see where I could take it.
So I left to work on my own startup, a smart calendar application which failed pretty early due to team and founder issues. That really sucked.
And that was the first time I really failed in my career. It was a completely sobering experience, but it opened my eyes to the entrepreneurial world, where you need to be able to experiment, launch something, put yourself out there and can’t be afraid to fail.
I learned that failure really sucks, but you can learn so much from it and use it to get better.
And here I am now. I’m working on another startup called ribl, you can check it out at R-I-B-L dot co. I’m a consultant and advisor to startups and small businesses. As I mentioned earlier, I’m a facilitator and organizer for Startup Weekend. And, of course, I’m launching this podcast right now!
So my background is full of launching and growing products and companies, and that’s why I’m embracing the concept of Go and Grow with this podcast. There’s so much you can get out of just going and launching something, getting it out there, then feeding it and growing it. And I want us to learn from the people who have done it throughout their careers.
I’m still growing as an entrepreneur, and this podcast is just another step in that growth process. Who knows where this will take me, but I’m really happy that you’re coming along for the ride, and I hope that you’ll stick around to be inspired by and learn from our guests.
Speaking of our guests, I’ve already interviewed some really amazing people for this podcast.
In episode 1, I chat with Jon Von Tetzchner, who started Opera Software, makers of the Opera Browser, with only $6000 and grew it to over 350 million users around the world. Jon tells us how he achieved that massive growth and what he’s working on now.
In episode 2, I talk with Mack Kolarich, who is running and growing two startups. We chat about how he’s automating event PR with SceneSquid and growing the global angel investing community with Startup Angels.
In episode 3, we hear from Amita Patel, who suffered from severe depression as a teenager and used that experience to launch her coaching services company, Aligned Holistics. She also gives us great advice about how to grow her email list, Twitter following, and get featured in the Huffington Post, CBS, and NBC.
You can access those episodes right now on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Soundcloud, whatever your podcast app of choice is, and at GoandGrowPodcast.com, so please check them out and also please subscribe to this podcast on those platforms to get notified of future episodes.
If you like what you hear, please rate and leave a review about this podcast on iTunes; it will help others like you more easily discover the Go and Grow Podcast, and it would be a massive help! I will personally thank everyone who submits a rating and review in a future episode!
Finally, I want to thank you so much for kicking off this podcast with me. It’s going to be a great journey.
And let’s get ready to Go and Grow! See you in the next episode!