MBA1870 Q&A Wednesday: Why did you start a software company? Should I start one too?

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Foreign. Welcome to the $100 MBA Show. Because we understand business is hard. That's why we try to make it a bit easier for you every single day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of Webinar Ninja, an independent software company I started with my co founder back in 2014 and today's episode Q and A Wednesday. On Q and A Wednesdays, I answer a question from one of you, one of our listeners. If you've got a question you want to ask, just email me over at Omar MBA Net. Today's question is from Fabian and Fabian asks, hey Omar, love the podcast and I also love Webinar Ninja, your webinar product. I've been thinking about starting a software business but I'm not sure if my why is strong enough. So I wanted to ask you, why did you start a software business? I understand that I need to have a strong why to be able to withstand the challenges ahead with software. I'd love to learn more about why you started yours so I can learn if I should start mine. Wow, what an interesting question by Fabian. I really like this because he's self aware and understands that you have to have a strong why to start any kind of business so that you can withstand the rainy days. So in today's lesson I'll share with you why I started Webinar Ninja, our webinar software with my co founder. We why didn't I just stick to the businesses I already had? I already had a successful podcast, this one and community and course why get into the crazy world of software? Well I actually have a very clear why and I'm really looking forward to sharing it in today's episode. And it's actually quite important for you as a business owner to be crystal clear on why you are running your business. It has to be so clear because you need to refer back to it constantly when you're having a challenging day, when you wake up in the morning and you just don't feel like doing what you have to do. If the why is not strong enough, you just won't make it. So in today's episode, I'll share my why. I'll share how I cultivated it and how I try to keep it alive so that when I'm reminded of it, I keep moving forward. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business.

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So Fabian asks in today's Q and A Wednesday, why did I start my software business Webinar Ninja? He's trying to explore his own why so that he can have a strong enough one to start his own. A bit of context. I started our software company with my co founder Nicole Baldinu back in April of 2014. Webinar Ninja was born. Prior to that I was running the $100 MBA this podcast. I was running the community. I was selling courses. I was selling training. My adult life has always been education. Even before I was an educator full time. I was a high school university teacher. I was a teacher trainer for 13 years. That was my job. Nicole has a similar background. She was a teacher as well. So both of us for the last 20 plus years have been in the genre, in the topic, in the market of education in one way or the other, whether teaching business now or teaching English back in the day at the university. And it's because from a very early age, early on in my career, I was very, very passionate about helping other people transform themselves with education. I feel that education is the way you can get out of any situation if you know how to do something, if you have a new skill, you can transform your life. And it could be something as simple as learning a new hobby, like learning how to ski, for example. It can just change everything. All of a sudden, now that you know how to ski, you can go on ski holidays, you can meet new friends, you can get your exercise in a different way. It's changed your life in some way just because you learned one new thing. And some educational experiences are even more significant, like learning how to build a business. And in that passion for education, I realized, hey, information is one thing. You know, you can have all the information in the world, you can learn a new skill. But if you don't have an easy way to apply that skill or to share that skill, it's very hard to actually get any traction in business, in life, in whatever you're doing, you actually need tools, you need something to actually put it into action. You can learn how to drive, but if you don't have a car yourself, it's hard for you to keep up that skill. It's hard for you to use that skill to take advantage of it. As an entrepreneur, I was very happy with my business, the $100 MBA show and the courses and the training I was doing. But I had a bigger vision for my I really wanted to allow other people to change the world with education. Now, I know that sounds like a very grandiose statement, but that's what a vision is and what I mean by change the world. We can change the world in little ways. And what does change the world mean? In my opinion, change the world means to change people in the world. When you change the people inside the world, you change the world. Okay, so if you've helped one person with one little thing, you taught them something, you've helped them with something, you've changed their mindset about something in one little way, you have changed the world in some very small way, but it's still significant to that one person. And over a course of a lifetime, you can change many lives. So if I wanted to fulfill this vision of mine. If I wanted to be able to scale changing the world with education, I would need a tool to be able to scale it. I'm only one person. There are only so many people I could teach. There's only so many people I can influence. I need other people to be able to do that. I need to empower other people with a tool. When I was running the $100 MBA, I used to do a lot of webinars. I like the concept of live teaching. I think people really absorb information. They are more engaged and the more engaged you are, the more you get out of a session or training. But I didn't like the tools that are out there. I thought it could be done better as a form educator. And that's why Nicole and I started Webinar Ninja, the webinar software. I understood that if I wanted to create something that was going to scale beyond myself, I needed to create something beyond myself. I needed to create another entity, another tool, so to speak, to take my vision to the next level. Now, this is not going to fulfill my vision 100%, but it's going to get me closer to there. I know that if I started a webinar software that is easy to use, that is user friendly, that's great for creatives, educators, trainers made for them so that they can just focus on their content and not need to worry about the technology. That's really why we created a webinar Ninja. I can then empower people to spread their message, spread their knowledge to other people at a greater scale. I also saw this as a stepping stone. I knew if I can nail this and people can really love this tool and utilize it to spread their message, it could be a launching pad to other products and other services that we can offer. And internally, as a team, our team at Webinar Ninja, we know what those steps are. We know that, hey, the next step we're going to do this, and the next step we're going to do this. But in order for those steps to even be a reality, we have to nail doing webinars really well. So we started with just live webinars, and then from live webinars, we started to add automated webinars. And then we added series webinars and we added hybrid webinars. Then we added different marketing elements and better features and just making it better and better. Eventually we're going to be able to create other products that are going to support our vision. But at the end of the day, it starts with a Clear vision. And I didn't make this up. I actually picked this up from, out of all people, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold Schwarzenegger is probably the best example I can think of when it comes to vision. He says it's very important for you to have a very clear, simple vision that you can look at, that you can imagine in your head in a second, because that's your driving force. For him, he had multiple visions. So at the start, it was becoming Mr. Olympia, which is the highest title for bodybuilders. And then he wanted to become an A list actor. And then he fulfilled that vision. Then he wanted to be the governor of California, which is the largest state in the US And I think the eighth largest economy by GDP in the world. And I picked this up in his book, Total Recall, his autobiography. And it's really important because there are days that are tough, there are days that are harder than others where you're required to do things that you just don't feel like doing. You might be a little burnt out, you might be a little bit tired, you might be dealing with an annoying thing. And I often have to go back to the vision and say to myself, okay, this is what I'm doing this for. This is why it's worth me going through this slog a little bit, because it's one step closer to my vision. By doing this, it gets me closer to my vision. And that's how Arnold Schwarzenegger puts it together. Like, every rep he did got him closer to Mr. Olympia. Every set he did got him closer to that, you know, that title. So that's my why I wanted to create a software company. Because I know if I want to fulfill my vision, I just can't do it alone. I need to create something larger than myself. There is no doubt you can create something bigger with a team, with more people, just more minds, more labor, more creativity. And sometimes that's not easy when you're making that transition. But it's important for you to realize it's a means to an end. I have to get over that so I can be able to get to where I want to go. And this is why it's important to have goals that are aligned with your vision. So we had a goal that we wanted a million people to use Webinar Ninja, and that would make us feel like we're impacting the world in some way. We hit that goal. We're at 3 million now. So we set up new goals. What's the next thing that's going to help us Fulfill the vision. What's another goal that's aligned with that vision? So, Fabian, who asked today's Q and A Wednesday's question. You need to really think about what are you trying to do with your business? Why are you starting a software company? What is this software going to do for people? My advice to you is if it's not a strong enough feeling, if it's not a strong enough vision, something you really want to do that really hits you at your core, then find something that is okay because you're going to need it. Secondly, whatever it is, try to find the simplest version of it. Simplify the vision so that it's not complicated. So it's very clear in your head, the simpler it is, the clearer it's going to be. For me, I know that if more people are sharing knowledge or sharing what they do, they can impact the world. They can help other people. It's a very simple concept. More people teaching, more people sharing. The more the world is going to be better, the more people are going to improve and grow and have broader perspectives. So that's the one metric I need more people sharing. That's it. Sharing information, sharing their knowledge, sharing their courses, whatever it is.

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To wrap up today's Q and a Wednesday's episode. Whatever your business is, you need to understand where you are heading. Where are you shooting? What is the goal? What is the vision? And what I want to say to you is that don't hold back, okay? A vision is supposed to be grand. It's supposed to be huge. And it doesn't necessarily mean you have to actually fulfill that vision to its entirety. The point of the vision is to have a direction, like north, right? To know where you're going. And if you can't share your vision publicly, if you can't say it out loud, then we have a problem, okay? You have to make sure you believe in it. You are proud of it, that you're not afraid to share it. If there's a reason why you're holding back, you got to explore that. You explore why do you feel uncomfortable saying this out loud to somebody? Do you not really believe in it? Do you not believe you can attain it? Figure it out, because this is going to be sort of your belief. This is what I believe. In this is what I believe I can do with my business. And every successful business has this. Apple had the vision of allowing the personal computer be so easy to use. Everybody had a computer at home. It wasn't just for corporates or secretaries or whatever it was back in the day. And that vision drives everything. I mean, look at Apple now. Apple probably is the easiest technology to use and that is driven from their vision that it had to be easy to use. If anybody can use it and anybody can have it at home. I mean, three year olds are using iPads now. Well, there you have it. Fabian, I hope that my answer today helped you out a little bit with your question on today's Q and A Wednesday. If you got a question you want to ask, if you're listening, you're like, hey, I got a question. I wonder if Omar can help me out with that. Go ahead and ask it. Just email me over at omar100.mba.net don't forget to hit subscribe so you don't miss our episode. Tomorrow's episode is all about knowing what really matters in your business. We're often scattered. We lose focus. We don't know what to work on because we think everything's important. That's not true. You need to really know, hey, these are the things that really matter in my business. I really need to focus on these things the vast majority of my time. So we'll talk about that in tomorrow's episode. If you don't want to miss it, hit subscribe so you get it automatically on your device. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. If you have a core team, if you have a founding team like me, I have a co founder, Nicole, you need to make sure you're all on the same page. Okay? You're on the same page when it comes to your vision because you all need to be moving in the right direction. One person can have a vision and the other person can have a vision. You might think it's similar, but no, you need to make sure you have a unified vision. There is no ambiguity. It's clear, it's simple so that you're both working towards the same goal. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you out in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care. Of.

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