Episodes

  • Ep.565|Excite.com, a $3.9B Exit with HomeAway & His Next Billion-Dollar Venture: How Ross Buhrdorf Is Still Building the Digital Empire

    Ep.565|Excite.com, a $3.9B Exit with HomeAway & His Next Billion-Dollar Venture: How Ross Buhrdorf Is Still Building the Digital Empire
    Apr 19 2025

    Listeners, today’s episode is a masterclass in innovation, tech leadership, and entrepreneurship from someone who’s seen it all.

    We’re joined by Ross Buhrdorf, one of the foundational figures in the rise of the internet. As the founding CTO of HomeAway, Ross helped scale the company to a $3.9 billion acquisition by Expedia. But that’s only part of the story. Before that, he was at the heart of one of the internet’s earliest search engines—Excite.com—which at one point was bigger than Google.

    Now, Ross is back in the arena with his latest venture: ZenBusiness, a mission-driven company helping millions of entrepreneurs start and grow their own businesses with confidence and ease.

    In this conversation, we go deep on:

    What it was like building Excite.com in the early days of the web How HomeAway scaled into a global platform with billions in valuation The emotional and mental shifts after a billion-dollar exit Why Ross believes every human should have access to entrepreneurship How ZenBusiness is leveling the playing field for small business owners The tools Ross uses—like NLP and visualization—to set big goals What he looks for in a winning startup idea and founding team The most important leadership lessons he’s learned across 3 decades How to build companies that align with your values, not just your wallet

    Whether you’re a founder, a tech enthusiast, or someone dreaming of launching your own business, this episode is packed with powerful takeaways and firsthand wisdom from a true digital pioneer.

    Contact Info:

    https://www.zenbusiness.com/

    ross@zenbusiness.com

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    1 hr and 16 mins
  • Ep.564 | Special New Years Eve Interview w/ the $50 Billion Man Jay Abraham

    Ep.564 | Special New Years Eve Interview w/ the $50 Billion Man Jay Abraham
    Mar 27 2025

    Listeners, welcome back to the pod! Today, we have an extraordinary guest—a true business mastermind who has shaped the strategies of some of the world’s most successful companies. Jay Abraham is widely regarded as one of the greatest marketing and business strategists of all time, and he’s here to share his wisdom with us.

    Known as the “$50 Billion Man,” Jay has worked with over 10,000 businesses across 1,000 industries, helping them unlock hidden revenue, scale exponentially, and gain a competitive edge. His expertise has influenced Fortune 500 companies, small business owners, and top entrepreneurs looking to maximize their impact and profits.

    As the author of The Sticking Point Solution and Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got, Jay has developed powerful frameworks for growth, differentiation, and business success. His insights have transformed industries, and today, we have the privilege of diving deep into his game-changing strategies.

    In this episode, we explore: ✅ How Jay measures success at the end of each year ✅ The power of Thinking BIG and how it changes everything ✅ How Jay stays focused in a world full of distractions ✅ The one guiding principle that defines his life and business philosophy ✅ His top advice for acquiring and retaining top talent ✅ Why he believes that “the unexamined business is not worth owning” and how he audits companies for growth ✅ The books that shaped his thinking and success

    This conversation is full of proven strategies, deep insights, and practical wisdom that can transform the way you approach business and life.

    In addition to his written work, Jay hosts the Breakthroughs at The Beach event, a three-day intensive workshop where business owners receive personalized strategies to unlock significant growth and profitability. The upcoming session is scheduled for May 7-9, 2025.

    For more insights from Jay, connect with him on: 🌐 Website: www.abraham.com 📱 Instagram: @realjayabraham 🐦 Twitter/X: @realjayabraham 🔗 LinkedIn: Jay Abraham

    Let’s dive in.

    Contact Info:

    Website: thebusinessmethod.com/

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    1 hr and 28 mins
  • HP#193 | The #1 Secret of Billionaire Founders

    HP#193 | The #1 Secret of Billionaire Founders
    Mar 14 2025

    After interviewing nearly 30 billion-dollar founders, one thing is clear: They commit long-term. If you’re expecting massive success in 2-3 years, you’re thinking too small. Give it 10 years and watch what happens!

    Contact Info:

    Website: thebusinessmethod.com/

    Apple Podcasts: bit.ly/TheBusinessMethod

    Google Podcasts: bit.ly/TheBusinessMethodGooglePodcasts

    Spotify: bit.ly/SpotifyTheBusinessMethod

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    2 mins
  • HP#192 | Escape the Victim Trap: How Accountability Transforms Your Life

    HP#192 | Escape the Victim Trap: How Accountability Transforms Your Life
    Mar 8 2025

    In 2007, I learned a life-changing lesson: the difference between a victim mindset and an accountable mindset. This episode breaks down how shifting your perspective can transform your success, relationships, and daily life. Tune in to learn how to take control.

    Contact Info:

    Website: thebusinessmethod.com/

    Apple Podcasts: bit.ly/TheBusinessMethod

    Google Podcasts: bit.ly/TheBusinessMethodGooglePodcasts

    Spotify: bit.ly/SpotifyTheBusinessMethod

    Amazon Music: bit.ly/AmazonTheBusinessMethod
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    6 mins
  • HP#191 | Filtering Through the Mind of a Billion-Dollar Woman

    HP#191 | Filtering Through the Mind of a Billion-Dollar Woman
    Aug 14 2024
    2-10 minute high-performance clips delivered to you Monday & Friday from our top interviews I love incredibly successful people that still have the down-to-earth human touch. It is really enjoyable to talk with them and understand why they are who they are. Today’s guest is one of those people and yet so much more. Janice Bryant Howroyd is the founder The ActOne Group and she is the very first African-American female to found a billion dollar company, and yes you heard me right, a billion dollar company. What is even more impressive about Janice is that speaking with her was like talking to an old friend. She is incredibly relatable and really a caring and authentic human being. Contact Info: Website: thebusinessmethod.com/ Apple Podcasts: bit.ly/TheBusinessMethod Google Podcasts: bit.ly/TheBusinessMethodGooglePodcasts Spotify: bit.ly/SpotifyTheBusinessMethod Amazon Music: bit.ly/AmazonTheBusinessMethod Transcript: Chris: Do you ever wonder how a billionaire thinks? How do they process all those crazy thoughts that go through their head on a regular basis? Well, I was curious, so I asked one. And the person I ask is Janice Bryant. Howroyd the first black woman to build a billion dollar company. Want to hear what she has to say. Let's hop into it. Going back to what you mentioned earlier in the interview, when you talked about your mind bouncing around all the time, Ray asks, how does Janice keep her mind in check and stay focused when it's all over the place and you see the world as a kaleidoscope? Janice: Ain't trying to do that Ray for chance. That's a failure from your perspective. I have no interest in organizing this beautiful mess. I love it. I thrive in it. What I do have though is Discipline. Discipline around initiatives and discipline around behaviors. So I love for my, you know, I, if you go up in there, it probably looks like Einstein's hair. But I, I, I deeply, deeply enjoy letting all the light come in, let all of it come in. And then once I filter it toward an initiative. Or, or a team effort, then I believe, as a matter of fact, my team will tell you, , one of my quotes they most often use is discipline ain't a dirty word. It's not a dirty word, you know, so I think that helps balance if that's what you're going at. I'm a highly disciplined person. . Chris: What is your filtration process there? , you know, we all get crazy ideas and they bounce around our head and we want to start this like new side hustle or new business or new project. , what are the ones that, what's your process for finding out which ideas are legitimate and the ones you want to continue to work towards? Janice: Oh, great. So there are four questions I asked myself. One, and this is kind of formulaic for me, Chris, so I can rattle it off. One is what do I want from it? If I do it. What's the outcome? What's the goal of it? What do I want from it? The next question is, what do I want from it? In the next 12 months, depending on where your energies are already obligated, you've only got so much time in a day that you can give. Even though all of us have the same amount of time to work with. So what do I want from it? The ultimate? What's it going to do? What's it going to be? Then what do I want from it in the next, , 12 months? What will it take to get to the next 12 months? And that's a biggie because entrepreneurs tend to tend to be, , exuberant in our thought about our own capacity. And then the fourth question is, what value will it have? You know, I'm very interested in being certain that the space I occupy, I leave better than when I got there better is in quotes because we all can define it differently, you know, and so that's how I filter to get to does this idea stand right now. The other thing I do is that, okay, so I live with an iPad. I'm on an iPad right now talking with you. I love, love, love, love, love iPad. Yes, I own stock in Apple, and yes, I bought it when it was a really good deal, but I love iPad anyway, and it allows me to do so much. And my notes section is busy. I am a fierce note taker. So I will write things down in my iPad and then I have a regular check in system where I go back. Is it still as clear to me as it was when I wrote it? If it's not, check, you know, and I move it. And so I systemize. ideas that come into my mind or initiatives. I also do that with asks when people are asking things of me, I do it that way as well. Mom used to do it much less, uh, complicated. She would say, oh, I'll come back to it later. If I can't remember what it was, it's gone. Or if it's burning at me and turning at me that I got to get back to it, then it's up there. You know, I think some people call it putting a pin in it. Chris: Yeah, I always tell myself if the idea keeps coming back to me, it means something that I should work towards or something I should implement. Janice: It can, it always doesn't mean that though. Sometimes, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, seriously. ...
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    9 mins
  • HP#190 | BILLIONAIRE EPISODE | From Extreme Poverty to One of the Richest Women in the World Part II

    HP#190 | BILLIONAIRE EPISODE | From Extreme Poverty to One of the Richest Women in the World Part II
    Aug 7 2024

    2-10 minute high-performance clips delivered to you Monday & Friday from our top interviews

    Contact Info:

    Website: thebusinessmethod.com/

    Apple Podcasts: bit.ly/TheBusinessMethod

    Google Podcasts: bit.ly/TheBusinessMethodGooglePodcasts

    Spotify: bit.ly/SpotifyTheBusinessMethod

    Amazon Music: bit.ly/AmazonTheBusinessMethod
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    12 mins
  • HP#189 | From Extreme Poverty to One of the Richest Women in the World

    HP#189 | From Extreme Poverty to One of the Richest Women in the World
    Jul 31 2024
    2-10 minute high-performance clips delivered to you Monday & Friday from our top interviews Contact Info: Website: thebusinessmethod.com/ Apple Podcasts: bit.ly/TheBusinessMethod Google Podcasts: bit.ly/TheBusinessMethodGooglePodcasts Spotify: bit.ly/SpotifyTheBusinessMethod Amazon Music: bit.ly/AmazonTheBusinessMethod Transcript: [00:00:00] Chris: She was born in the segregated south in extreme poverty, one of 11 kids, and she built a billion dollar company. You guys welcome to the high-performance tip number 189. Of our podcast. And today I want to feature Janice Bryant. Howroyd Janice is one of the most inspirational people that I've interviewed out of 500 people. And what's really amazing about her is that, like I mentioned, she started in a segregated south born in 1952, where there was white people on one side of the neighborhood and black people on the other side of the neighborhood and she was born one of 11 kids in extreme poverty. Nevertheless, she still made her way to found and build a billion dollar company. And not only that, she was the first black woman to build a billion dollar company. She stands at the top of the list as the 38th richest woman in the world, and, she talks specifically in this episode, how she gained an abundance mindset and how her family, her parents taught her to have an abundance mindset and to dream. Even though she's in an extremely racist and suppressive environment during her youth for the first 24 years of her life. Let's hop into it with Janice Bryant. Howroyd. Janice: I was born in 1952 One of 11 kids, the fourth of 11 kids, same mom, same dad in Tarboro, North Carolina. , , so that can tell you a lot about just what was happening in my community at that time we were a segregated community, Um, , we were segregated in many ways, not just racially, but racial segregation. offered the segregation of economics and I'm glad you said we were economically poor because we were spiritually rich, quite wealthy if you think of it, and aspirationally we were full. Mom and dad wanted for us the world that they dreamed was possible, but they didn't put boundaries on us about how that could be achieved, meaning they didn't want us to only do the things they thought we should do. Nobody had to be a doctor or lawyer, you know, a candlestick butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker. But they did insist that education would be a platform for that. That was the hard hitting thing in my home growing up. And I never saw anybody outside of a teacher or a preacher who held a professional job who was African American unless I got pictures and stories of them from old print magazines. , there was Essence. Ebony. Essence came later. There was Ebony. There was Sepia. And are you, are you familiar with the Georges? , the family? No, no, no. The Georges were, were the, , porters along trains. Along the rail tracks that ran from south to north on the east coast. And rather than bother to learn John or Fred or Joseph's name, everyone was called George or boy. Okay. Okay. Wow. The George is my, my grandfather was a George. Okay. He hated it. His name was Daniel. He worked that line for many years. And nobody knew his name. , and so, they would bring products and, and, and, , items to us that we couldn't get locally. So nobody was selling black magazines in Tarboro, North Carolina. Black focused magazines. So we'd get Ebony, Jet. Sepia delivered by the George's and everybody waited for the train to come in on the day that the magazines would come and that's where I started to get ideas about the possibility of what a black person could do And a black woman could do . We weren't seeing black people on TV. And that was so big for us. We'd all rush home. What does that got to do with the way I grew up? Everything I grew up with a full faith in what America is and what the world is like, and, um, and could be for me and that I had a place to shape it despite what was going on day to day. And that was the power. And I think the faith that our mom and dad put in front of us, [00:04:54] Chris : There you haven't you guys, what do you think? Hearing stories like that make our difficulties in 2024 seem incredibly small. And irrelevant. And I would imagine very few listening to the podcast grew up in an environment that has equal or worse than Janice's, but nonetheless hearing a story like that really makes us think that anything is possible. Not only any, not only is anything possible, but, what is important. Is that we focus on the positive side of life. And we surrender to our dreams . And go after them with everything that we have. So, leaving you with that. I want to ask you. What did you take away from Janice's story? It's a powerful one. If you haven't heard Janice's full episode, I recommend you checking it out. I believe it's episode number 544. , interviewing the 38th richest woman in the world. Janice Bryant. Howroyd. And if you want to make sure you don't miss any...
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    6 mins
  • Ep.563 ~ Building Your Own Luxury Cruise Line ~ Manfredi Lefebvre d'Ovidio

    Ep.563 ~ Building Your Own Luxury Cruise Line ~ Manfredi Lefebvre d'Ovidio
    Jul 10 2024
    Listeners welcome back to the pod - today we will dive deep into the life of one of the most influential figures in the cruise line and maritime world. Our guest is a titan of the cruise line industry, a visionary entrepreneur, and a lifelong champion of global tourism his name is Manfredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio. Manfredi has transformed his family business into a global leader in luxury cruising. Under his leadership, Silversea Cruises expanded its company offering travel experiences across all seven continents around the world. In a strategic partnership with Royal Caribbean Manfredi orchestrated the sale of a ⅔ stake in Silversea for a whopping $1 billion in 2018. This strategic partnership not only elevated Silversea's brand but also marked one of the most significant deals in the cruise industry's history. And lastly, Manfredi is the Chairman of The Heritage Group which is a private equity company that acquired 85% of one of the biggest luxury travel companies in the world Abercrombie & Kent - whose founder Geoffrey Kent was on the podcast just last month. Today we are going to dive into the life and mind of Manfredi Lefebvre d'Ovidio. 00:12: Who is Manfredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio? 03:42: Manfredi’s Recommended Books 05:56: Manfredi’s Starts a Cruise Line 13:01: How this Billion-Dollar Founder Spends his Time 15:05: The Biggest Challenge Manfredi Experienced was September 11, 2001. 18:56: Manfredi Takes Over the Family Business 21:18: Manfredi Pioneers the Luxury Cruise Industry. 24:39: Why Manfredi Loves Being an Entrepreneur 26:13: Manfredi’s Career Chapters 29:59: Manfredi Orchestrated the Most Significant Deal in the Cruise Industry. 32:47: Manfredi & Geoffrey Kent Built the First Expedition Cruise Ship 34:59: Manfredi’s Daily Routine 37:13: Advice Manfredi Would Give His Younger Self 37:58: Things to Look for in Executives and Partners When You Bring Them On 40:25: What is Manfredi Most Proud Of? Contact Info: https://www.manfredilefebvre.com/ https://heritagemonaco.com/ https://www.silversea.com/ Transcript: [00:00:12] Chris: Listeners, welcome back to the podcast today, and we will dive deep into the life of one of the most influential figures in the cruise line and maritime world. Our guest today is a Titan in the cruise line industry, a visionary entrepreneur, a lifelong champion of global tourism, and his name is Manfredi LaFavre D'Ovidio. Manfredi has transformed his family business into a global leader in luxury cruising. Under his leadership, Silver Sea Cruises expanded its company, offering travel experiences across all seven continents around the world. In a strategic partnership with Royal Caribbean, Manfredi orchestrated the sale of a two third stake in Silversea for a whopping 1 billion in 2018. This strategic partnership not only elevated Silversea's brand, but also marked. One of the most significant deals in the cruise industry's history. And lastly, Manfredi is the chairman of the heritage group, which is a private equity company that acquired 85 percent of one of the biggest luxury travel companies in the world, Abercrombie and Kent, whose founder was actually on the podcast last month. So if you haven't listened to that interview yet, make sure you check it out. And today we're going to dive into the life and mind of Manfredi. Listeners, welcome to the show. Manfredi, welcome to the show. How are you doing today? [00:01:34] Manfredi: Not too bad. Not too bad. Can I add something to what you said? [00:01:38] Chris: Please do. Add or take away. Whatever you like. [00:01:41] Manfredi: Well, what happened is that as soon as I did my deal with Royal Caribbean, I did buy, uh, Abercrombie Kent, which recently I brought up to 100 percent shareholding, and I sold to Royal Caribbean subsequently one further that I owned, uh, in, uh, Silver Sea in exchange of Royal Caribbean shares and acquired another cruise line, which is called Crystal Cruises. [00:02:04] Chris: Ah, I did actually read about that. Forgive me for not putting that in there. [00:02:08] Manfredi: No, so it's just, the story goes on. And before Silver Sea, we had another cruise line, which was called Sydmar. Okay. [00:02:17] Chris: Was Sid, was Smar the one created by your father or was Silver Sea created by your father? Uh, [00:02:23] Manfredi: Sid Smar was acquired by my father with me because I was working with him at the time. And we bought, uh, the Cruise Line, which was one of the first cruise lines ever. And, uh, Sid Bar built the first free purposely built cruise ships, which were built in Italian shipyard fi can and LA in France. [00:02:42] Chris: Great. So that [00:02:42] Manfredi: was the beginning. Then we got an offer we couldn't refuse. We sold Smar. And we started Silversea together with my father, which I took over shortly after. [00:02:52] Chris: And that was in the 90s, correct? [00:02:54] Manfredi: That was, uh, we started in 92, we acquired in 86, Sidmar, sold it ...
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    44 mins
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