120 | Growing a Successful Business Through Curiosity with Chris Guillebeau
Being curious is underrated. We grow up as children with curiosity raging inside of us. We ask questions to some of the simplest things; however, as we get older many of us replace curiosity with knowing. It is great to KNOW something, yet don’t underestimate the value of being curious. Chris Guillebeau, NY Times and Wall St. Journal best selling author, shares how he uses “curiosity” to grow his business, create products and even write books. We talk about many other aspects of business growth too so join us and be sure to leave a comment too.
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Chris’s Target Audience: His community is made up of individuals from all around the world. He calls them the “small army of remarkable people.”
They are made up of all different ages, include men as well as women and come from all different walks of life. What unites them is they all possess a desire to live differently, unconventionally and are pro- change. They are entrepreneurs, solopreneurs and/or freelancers.
Chris is a writer, a traveller and an entrepreneur. For the past 10 and a half years he was on a quest to visit every country in the world. He kept on connecting with people who embodied the “contrarian” – someone who asks questions and is clear about their motivations.
The Community started coming together as a result of his travel and blog in an organic way. He started to notice a real need in his community. In learning to listen more intently, he found that people had this emotional desire for connection. Perhaps they didn’t know a lot of other people who wanted what they wanted- so the aim was to AFFIRM them. The $100 Dollar Startup was written to support them in a practical way. The more he listened, the more the business evolved. He wondered about their desires and how he was uniquely fashioned to meet their needs. By developing his listening skills, he began to notice a pattern.
The World Domination Summit soon formulated. The purpose of it was to give people a chance to connect with each other and affirm this lifestyle of unconditional living. It started with about 400-500 people. The event served them well and it expanded from there.
Chris’s experiences also produced another book: The Happiness of Pursuit. This piece of work is about the bigger global story of quest and adventure. It aims to provide the message that adventure is good for us and we all have the ability to cultivate it in our lives. The reason Chris gave it this title is because he found that people found happiness in the striving of happiness/adventure.
In this episode we’ll cover:
- Why staying curious is a good thing
- How to cultivate adventure every day
- How to identify the needs of your community
- Why people are seeking connection
- The importance of validating people’s needs
- How Chris brought people together
Resources and Links
- Chris on Twitter
- World Domination Summit
- Chris’s website
- Find the Quest
- The Happiness of Pursuit
- The $100 Start Up
- The Art of Non-Conformity
Practical and Actionable
Do anything you can to delve into the needs of your community. 
To give Chris a shout out, follow him and send him a message. Connect with Gene too on LinkedIn or Twitter at @genehammett.
Do you have questions about today’s episode?
Did you know that you can apply to chat with me by phone? This is a limited time offer to help anyone that is serious about refining their business as well as developing a clear & compelling strategy that will drive them forward. Complete the questions and our team will follow up with you to schedule time for your “Vision Breakthrough Session”. These are limited to 30 minutes, completely free and oh, so valuable. Apply Now!
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