In this rapid‑fire interview, Professor Pete Alexander hosts Tom Libelt, founder of a niche online‑course marketing agency called Smart Brand Marketing. Tom explains that his company focuses exclusively on marketing online courses, a model he describes as low‑overhead, highly scalable, and profitable because it eliminates fulfillment and inventory. He emphasizes the importance of being able to pivot—"Things Change: Know How to Start Over"—and advises business leaders to keep teams small (five or fewer people) and maintain an open calendar to reduce stress and create space for strategic thinking. Tom shares a productivity tip about deliberately scheduling thinking and playtime, citing Noah Kagan’s color‑coded calendar as an example. He recommends fellow entrepreneur John Lawson as a potential podcast guest. The conversation concludes with a vivid anecdote about Tom’s first job at age seven, helping his father smuggle liquor and electronics across the Polish‑German border, which gave him early street‑smart sales experience. Listeners are directed to Smart Brand Marketing for services and to the Winning at Business and Life podcast on various platforms.
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This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.
I'm Tom Leibold, and I have been in the business world, um, in some way or the other since I was 12. So yeah, I mean, I've had my own jobs too along the way, but it's mostly been business. Like, I've been in and out. The only time I really got a job was when I was like either confused or trying to gain a skill, like a sales skill, you know. So that was— that's the only, you know, ventures I've ever had in the actual job world.
Excellent. And so what are you currently doing?
So at the moment we, um, well, we have a marketing company, but what we've done is we niche down into online courses. So we market online courses specifically and everything else we don't touch. So very niche, but it makes life easier.
I like it. So that's great. Question number 2, what's the best thing about working in your industry?
It's the industry itself. You know, if you can get an online course done right, when it's selling, it's like the perfect business model. No overhead, virtually no fulfillment, very scalable, having a small team, you know, it's just, it like ticks all the boxes for us. So we really like it.
Yeah, I can see that too. And it's very expandable too, I would imagine.
Yeah, that's why the scaling part, you know, if you can sell one, um, the difference between selling one and 100, it's just a sales process. It's not really, like I said, no fulfillment, no inventory, no overhead extra coming in. It's just selling, you know. So like, we really like it. It's a great business model.
Excellent. Question number 3: I have a book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
Well, Things Change: Know How to Start Over. That's the chapter, you know, like be opportunistic in some ways. And, you know, like people call it pivots, but it's really, you know, sometimes you're going along a path and, you know, something opens up. And I'm not saying like the green grass on the other side, because that's usually a horrible idea. That's like getting on a different bus and starting over. I'm saying like, if you're heading down the path and you see an opportunity in your industry that you're ready for because you've been working in it for a long time, and you know, things are changing, you're seeing, you know, there's, you know, probably, okay, if you have a service business, maybe it's better to go into the information product or an app or anything. Knowing how to start over and taking that next step where you can really, you know, grow your business— like, I've done it multiple times. And you can call it pivots, but for me it was more, you know, just, just knowing how to start over again from a better spot.
I like that. That's, that's pretty insightful. Question number 4. Other than generic work harder, have a great attitude and care for the customers, what advice or insight would you like to give to other business leaders?
Well, there's two things, right? Because, you know, you specialize in like stress and things like that. And the way to minimize stress is keeping your team small, right? And keeping your schedule open. And I know, you know, we've been hearing a lot about scaling, growing, you know, like the first question a lot of people ask is, "How many people on your team?" I'm like, "Well, 5 too many." You know, if I have 5, or if it's 20, it's 20 too many. Like, I think The less employees, the less problems, less headaches, more profits, less time being consumed, less babysitting, you know, because it's not just customers, it's also employees doing the same thing. And keeping the schedule open, like, it's super important. Like, how are you going to find a new opportunity if you're always busy working on your business? How do you take time to think? How do you take the time to relax? You know, it's like those two things, um, since I've really start kind of following them, changed everything for me. Like, I don't work that many hours now, have more profit than ever before in my team. Even now, still a couple people too many because I still have a couple, but you know, it's like I need them, you know. But if you ever told me like, oh, let's grow a 100-people company, like, no, I'm good. You do that. I'll probably have more time and money without, you know, like doing it my way. So Yeah, that's, that's the one thing I would think about, you know, as advice, which is like counter what everyone's saying.
It's interesting too, because as you're sharing that insight, I think about what I do as well, is I block time in my calendar just like it would be for an appointment or a customer call, etc. I block time in my calendar for good thinking time or something that I want to do personally. Is that how you work it with your schedule as well?
Well, I just try to not really block anything in other than like interviews like this, or, you know, when I have to speak with clients, which I'm also trying to get rid of clients as much as possible, you know, have things where like they just— it sells by itself and I just have someone doing customer service. But other than that, yeah, I will, you know, have this big open space and then plan like this day I'm going to do thinking, this day I'm going to have some playtime. If you don't schedule in some ways, for me it just means open calendar, it doesn't happen. If I don't say like, okay, Saturday we're gonna have fun and whatever that means, go by the pool, this, if I don't actually think of it, it doesn't happen. I'm gonna start thinking about work again. So yeah, I mean, scheduling it would be probably smarter. I think Noah Kagan from AppSumo, he posted his calendar on Twitter recently. And he schedules dates, thinking, learning, playtime, camping, hobbies, gym. Like, you can see, like, everything's color-coded. And I looked at it, though, like, first I just thought, you have really weird hobbies. But then the second thing was, like, this is really smart because, because if he just looks at it, he's like, okay, this is my day, you know. And then, like, it's color-coded so you kind of know visually, you know, how much work you're going to do and how much everything else. But I would recommend people to check that out. It's on Noah Kagan's Twitter feed.
Great. I'll check it out too. I'm curious. Question number 5: What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
Well, as we mentioned before the show, they gotta be good on video. So when I think of that, John Lawson, uh, been in e-commerce for a long time, been doing public speaking, like a lot of things, mastermind, but He's a really good friend. That's someone I talk with when I feel like having like a fun, you know, business conversation. So I think he would be awesome for this.
Great. I'll reach out to John. Thank you for that referral. And question number 6, please tell me about your first job.
Well, my first job was when I was like, actually I was 7, so, so it was longer than since I was 10, 12. Okay. So what happened was my dad used to— we used to live in Poland. It was communist back then. My dad used to smuggle in liquor to Germany and then smuggle back electronics and videos and all this stuff back to Poland. And my job, my job was go to the soccer stadiums with him and push the product.
So having the cute, cute little boy there, the sweet little boy that's selling the product.
Yeah, so this is what happened. We had a lot of Russian vendors and I gained a lot of street smarts because I was ripped off all the time as a kid. These Russians were ruthless. They would sell you a soccer ball without the rubber inside. If they seen you looking at comic books and like, you're like, pick this one up and kind of smile and look at other ones. When you pick it up again, it's double the price. Like you got hustled all the time. But with me, you know, and it's one of these things like I've learned from internet marketing, especially back like 10, 15 years ago, and it was like, you know, more scammy in some ways, you know, have a picture of yourself with a kid and everyone trusts you, right? So I think my dad just thought like having the kid around and being like, oh yeah, this is a great video, you know, people were like, well, the kid's not gonna lie. But I just didn't know anything. I was just like, okay, yeah, sure, yeah, this VCR, yeah, we played on it, it was great. I think just 'cause he told me, but it was a fun job.
Sure sounds like it. It sure sounds like it. Great story, great story, I love it. So Tom, thank you so much for being on the show. How could people find you?
Best way is to go to Smart Brand Marketing and that's where I have a podcast too and it's, you know, you can see my services and you can contact me. Like I'm really easy to find, but that's the best place.
Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. For more insights and ideas, please go to LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, or iTunes and search for the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.
