From A Passion To 250k Viewers – The Rise To The Top
About David Siteman And ‘Rise To The Top’
For a long time David suppressed his passion for broadcasting and a drive for success. Fast-forward a few years and he now has an internet show with a quarter million viewers and growing. He’s been featured on CNN, CBS, and the New York Times, and his broadcasting dream has turned into a highly profitable enterprise.
Passion and Drive
David speaks about having a passion for broadcasting since he was very little but never pursued it. He became an entrepreneur and was working in the hockey industry and ended up on a radio show in St. Louis. He came up with a random idea for rise to the top in a coffee shop.
He loves the freedom that being self employed brings and the ability to “Be Your Own Boss” as well as being your own testing lab, which as he says can accelerate your journey faster. It took David only a few years to be a broadcaster in an industry where 20+ years is the norm.
Difficulties Of Being An Entrepreneur
The area he finds most difficult about being an entrepreneur is whether to Outsourcing more stuff or insourcing more stuff. Being lean and making sure that the bottom-line remains as low, while ensuring the services offered remain of a high standard is balance every business big or small tries to find. Although he tries to do things himself, David points out that his business has grown because he has been getting better at employing the right people to get the job done. The other area he has been getting better at is adapting as things change and keeping options to remain flexible.
Networking is another important factor for David. Finding like-minded entrepreneur that he resonates with and draws inspiration from is important.
Targeting Your Audience
David remains active on social media which allows people to know who he is. He has learnt that to build an audience you have to do it literally one person at a time. He has done everything possible to build this audience. For two years he put his name on the map in whatever way he could, although he points out that this cannot be done forever as you risk burning out. He started putting his name out there locally and then went global, throwing events where entrepreneurs were invited to dinner groups.
Entrepreneur Mindset
David stays on track by mixing things up and changing his schedule. After a couple of months he would do little things like move meetings from mornings to afternoons and works-out every day to keep himself productive and efficient. A strong body leads to a strong mind so taking care of yourself is important if you want to stay on top. Work hard party hard is something that David does too. As he sees it, having social things to do outside of work keep him motivated.
He’s advise to new upstarts and especially those involved in the blogging world is that it’s a long term game. For bloggers, it can take years to monetize and its not about hitting a home run on the first pitch. You can either go in hard r use it as a side project. Keep your day job or night job and build your blog slowly over time. And for most upstarts, spend your time marketing, networking and growing your relationships.
Food For Thought
1. Be passionate about the business you want to do
2. Ideas came from the most random places at the most random times
3. Learn to keep your costs low while producing high service for your clients
4. Networking is the lifeblood of any business and critical for upstarts
5. Get your name, your product or services out there
6. Don’t try hit a home run on the first pitch, it a long term game
Find stories and interviews of other entrepreneur running successful start-up’s on www.entrepreneur-stories.com. Successful entrepreneurs who want to be featured and interviewed should contact us via the contact us page. Duke Mascaro is an article writer who interviews and writes articles for entrepreneur-stories.
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Entrepreneur Stories interviews David Siteman Garland a young entrepreneur working in the hockey business. Visit our entrepreneur stories for the full interview. Here’s what we found out.
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