Podcast
Rising Tide Startups
Hosted by Rising Tide · EN
Rising Tide Startups is a unique, bi-weekly Business interview podcast, hosting some of today’s most exciting solopreneurs, startups founders and side hustlers from all over the globe.
17episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
9.17 – Amber Goetz – The Active Media
Dec 1900:37:10Tap to summarizeMost employees talk about leaving the corporate world someday. Amber Goetz didn’t just talk about it, she actually did it. Her path there was anything but typical. Before building her SEO agency, she spent years as a programmer, TV host, and stunt driver, racing cars and motorcycles for commercials and television. Later, she walked away from a secure marketing job to rebuild her own agency on her own terms. In this episode of Rising Tide Startups, Amber shares why the slow pace and red tape of corporate life finally pushed her back into entrepreneurship. She runs The Active Media, an SEO and web development agency that helps businesses jump from being buried in search results to showing up where customers actually click and call. She explains how AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini have changed how people search, why keyword-based pricing no longer works, and how she now builds campaigns around effort, aggressiveness, and real outcomes. Amber talks about how local service businesses can win against bigger brands by treating their Google Business Profile like a true storefront, and why clear communication and strong boundaries with clients keep her business from feeling like a job again. She also shares what living in southern Utah has taught her about people who actually act on big ideas, and her dream of launching a podcast featuring her clients and writing a book to help women grow their authority online. Key Takeaways: Get clear on what you do best. Naming your core skill and obsessing over it is the first step out of the golden handcuffs. Update how you price SEO. Flat keyword packages no longer match how people search, so build offers around time, intensity, and results. Let data lead your decisions. Test, measure, and adjust campaigns based on performance instead of guessing what should work. Treat Google Business Profile like your storefront. Local businesses that keep it active and complete can outrank much bigger companies. Protect your boundaries. Saying no to clients who ignore your time and process keeps entrepreneurship from feeling like another corporate job. Define your ideal client early. Knowing exactly who you want on the other end of the phone shapes your messaging, pricing, and red flags. Listen to the full conversation here: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@risingtidestartups Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rising-tide-startups/id1330525474 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2eq7unl70TRPsBhjLEsNZR Connect with Amber: The Active Media: theactivemedia.com Goetz Go: goetzgo.com Please leave us an honest rating on Spotify, YouTube, or Apple Podcasts. Shoutout to our Great Sponsors: Naviqus Virtual Services - Hassle-free administrative support services that are efficient, affordable, and tailored to your needs. Check out https://naviqus.com now to jumpstart your business for 2026! Podbrand Media - Have you ever considered starting your own podcast for your company or brand? Podbrandmedia.com can help. Affordable and effective in content creation and lead generation!
Transcribe →9.16 – Noah Tidwell – Solo Operator
Dec 800:29:55Tap to summarizeMost 20-somethings are still figuring out their first job. Noah Tidwell dropped out of college, bought a moving company, ran it for five years, sold it, and launched a new business helping home service owners automate their operations. All before most people finish grad school. In this episode of Rising Tide Startups, Noah shares how he discovered his real passion wasn't running a moving company but solving the operational headaches that kept him up at night. The inefficiencies, the manual processes, the time sucks that every blue collar business owner deals with but doesn't have time to fix. So he sold his company and built Solo Operator to do exactly that. Now he's helping small home service businesses get their time back by implementing systems, automations, and processes that actually work. Noah talks about the discipline it takes to focus on high leverage activities, why he hires fast and fires fast in the home service space, and his vision for Solo Operator Labs where he takes equity stakes in businesses instead of charging monthly retainers. He also shares lessons from his dad (who was a previous guest on this podcast), why nobody will ever care about your business as much as you do, and his dream of backpacking through Europe once he builds a business that runs without him. Key Takeaways: Focus on signal, not noise. Identify your highest leverage tasks each day and complete them before anything else. Do what you actually love. If you're dreading most of your work, it's time to pivot toward what energizes you, even if it means starting over. Nobody will care as much as you. You can't expect employees to have the same drive as a founder. Accept that and set realistic expectations. Partner for ownership, not just payment. Taking a piece of the business instead of charging fees aligns incentives and opens doors when cash is limited. Small businesses need systems to survive. Whether you want to grow or exit, having documented processes and automation in place isn't optional anymore. Build a business that runs without you. True freedom means being able to step away and know everything still works. Listen to the full conversation here: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@risingtidestartups Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rising-tide-startups/id1330525474 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2eq7unl70TRPsBhjLEsNZR Connect with Noah: Solooperator: solooperator.co Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-tidwell-18645b2a2/ Please leave us an honest rating on Spotify, YouTube, or Apple Podcasts. Shoutout to our Great Sponsors: Naviqus Virtual Services - Hassle-free administrative support services that are efficient, affordable, and tailored to your needs. Check out https://naviqus.com now to jumpstart your business for 2026! Podbrand Media - Have you ever considered starting your own podcast for your company or brand? Podbrandmedia.com can help. Affordable and effective in content creation and lead generation!
Transcribe →9.15 – Joris Delanoue – Fairmint
Nov 1400:47:21Tap to summarizeWhat if equity could move as fast as code? Most founders spend thousands on lawyers, cap table management, and outdated infrastructure just to raise money and distribute equity. Joris Delanoue thinks that's ridiculous. As co-founder and CEO of Fairmint, he's building the rails to move private equity onto the blockchain, turning cap tables into smart contracts and making ownership as easy to transfer as sending an email. In this episode of Rising Tide Startups, Joris shares his journey from being a serial entrepreneur in France to a blockchain pioneer in Silicon Valley. After selling multiple companies and experiencing the pain of locked-up investments and cap tables that were impossible to manage, he moved to the US with one goal: to fix capitalism. What started as an idea for a startup exchange using SPVs evolved into Fairmint, a platform that's already moved over $1 billion in equity onto the blockchain. Joris breaks down why blockchain is the superior technology for securities, how Fairmint is deintermediating traditional finance without sacrificing compliance, and why privacy features like zero-knowledge proofs are unlocking trillions of dollars in institutional capital. He also discusses the shift from infrastructure as CapEx to OpEx, and how transfer agents are suddenly the most sought-after role in finance. Additionally, he shares his belief that entrepreneurship changes the world faster than politics ever will. Key Takeaways: Blockchain is a superior infrastructure for equity. Just like cloud computing replaced private servers, blockchain will replace traditional financial rails because it's faster, cheaper, and more efficient. Cap tables should be smart contracts. Moving equity onto the blockchain eliminates intermediaries, reduces costs, and makes ownership programmable and liquid. Compliance is a feature, not a bug. Being an SEC-registered transfer agent means investors don't lose their assets if they lose their private keys. You can always recover securities with proper ID. Infrastructure can become a profit center. With the right tokenomics, what used to be operational expenses can now generate revenue instead of costing money. Equity should be accessible to everyone. Employees, contractors, partners, and community members who contribute value should be able to participate in the financial upside. Entrepreneurship beats politics. As a founder, you can impact billions of people through what you build, the values you embed, and the vision you execute. Listen to the full conversation here: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@risingtidestartups Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rising-tide-startups/id1330525474 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2eq7unl70TRPsBhjLEsNZR Connect with Joris: Fairmint: https://www.fairmint.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/delanoue/ Closing thought: "The worst thing you can do is not know what to do and start chasing rabbits. Sometimes it's just better to do nothing." Please leave us an honest rating on Spotify, YouTube, or Apple Podcasts. Shoutout to our Great Sponsors: Naviqus Virtual Services - Hassle-free administrative support services that are efficient, affordable, and tailored to your needs. Check out https://naviqus.com now to jumpstart your business for 2026! Podbrand Media - Have you ever considered starting your own podcast for your company or brand? Podbrandmedia.com can help. Affordable and effective content creation and lead generation!
Transcribe →9.14 – Petra Zink – Impaccct
Oct 3100:31:44Tap to summarizeSometimes a setback does more than stop you; it reroutes you. Petra Zink is a Brand & Business Growth Strategist, Keynote Speaker, and Author who helps executives and founders turn their reputation into scalable revenue. She's the founder of impaCCCt and The360Talent.Co, host of the Trusted Authority™ Podcast, and author of Trusted Authority: From Unknown to Known. Originally from Austria, Petra has been living in Australia for 16 years after coming for a six-month stay. Her journey started after being put on a performance improvement plan instead of getting the promotion she expected. Petra developed the impaCCCt framework based on a simple observation: when she asked recruitment candidates what they wanted, they all said "I want to make an impact," but few could explain what that actually looked like. Petra turned that insight into a challenge: how do you turn something so abstract into a process anyone can follow? The result was her impaCCCt framework, built around three pillars—Clarify, Communicate, and Commercialize. Petra also shares why foundation work is essential, how she condensed her program into an intensive full-day immersion, and why working out loud with experiments beats playing it safe. Key Takeaways: Your Beliefs Plus Your Behavior Build Your Brand. If you don't believe you're good enough, you won't take the actions to reshape how you're seen. Get Reps In Before Seeking Perfection. Start with small experiments rather than waiting for the perfect business model. The Three O's of Credibility Matter. Build your own credibility. Tap into other people's credibility through association. Create on-the-go credibility by working out loud. Foundation Work Is Unsexy But Essential. Positioning yourself takes time and isn't visible, but without it, your marketing assets mean nothing. Speed Creates Better Results. The faster you get assets out there, the quicker you get feedback to refine what works. Work Out Loud With Stretch Goals. Set ambitious experiments and document the journey publicly so people can help you. Listen to the full conversation here: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@risingtidestartups Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rising-tide-startups/id1330525474 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2eq7unl70TRPsBhjLEsNZR Connect with Petra: LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/petrazink impaCCCt: https://www.impaccct.com/ Trusted Authority™ Podcast: https://www.impaccct.com/trusted-authority-the-podcast Closing thought: "People often think they have to have the perfect idea or the perfect business model to get started. You’ll never start perfect, because there’s always something new to learn." Please leave us an honest rating on Spotify, YouTube, or Apple Podcasts. Shoutout to our Great Sponsors: Naviqus Virtual Services - Hassle-free administrative support services that are efficient, affordable, and tailored to your needs. Check out https://naviqus.com now to jumpstart your business for 2025! Podbrand Media - Every company or brand needs its own podcast? Podbrandmedia.com can help. Affordable and effective in content creation and lead generation!
Transcribe →9.13 – Agnė Marija Mokrikaitė – Linkedin Expert
Oct 1000:39:26Tap to summarizeWhat if one random podcast episode on a Tuesday completely changed your career trajectory? Agne Maria Moa is a content strategist at Notus, one of Europe's leading personal branding agencies, where she helps founders build their LinkedIn presence. Her journey started when she accidentally listened to a podcast by Rory Vaden about how personal brands impact sales. The next day, she posted her first piece of content. While still a university student in Lithuania, Agne worked unpaid for six months at an early-stage agency while her peers worked as baristas. Agne takes a different approach that goes beyond chasing virality. She's learned that breakthrough comes from pushing through when you have zero engagement and nobody's responding. She starts with deep interviews to understand clients' backgrounds and goals before creating anything. Rather than copying what works for others, she helps founders figure out what makes them unique and builds strategies around their personal experiences. This conversation gets into building a personal brand from scratch. Agne shares how she dealt with impostor syndrome as a student with no experience, why she did things differently when everyone questioned her, and how focusing on value attracted opportunities. Key Takeaways: Do Something Different to Build Success. Building an extraordinary life means doing what others aren't doing, even when it feels uncomfortable. Push Through the Uncomfortable Period. Breakthrough happens after you gain momentum, but you have to keep posting when nobody's engaging. Strategy Before Content. Understand your goals, target audience, and what makes you unique before creating posts or chasing engagement. Personal Stories Beat Tactical Advice. Content that ties personal experience to insights performs significantly better than generic how-to posts. Don't Chase Virality at the Expense of Positioning. High engagement doesn't matter if it positions you wrong or attracts people who won't become clients. Test Different Content Pillars. Mix tactical advice, personal stories, industry insights, and aspirational content to find what resonates. Listen to the full conversation here: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@risingtidestartups Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rising-tide-startups/id1330525474 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2eq7unl70TRPsBhjLEsNZR Connect with Agne: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/agnemokrikaite/ Calendly: https://calendly.com/agne-mokrikaite/30min Closing thought: "In order to be successful in life, you need to do something completely different to what other people are doing." Please leave us an honest rating on Spotify, YouTube, or Apple Podcasts. Shoutout to our Great Sponsors: Naviqus Virtual Services - Hassle-free administrative support services that are efficient, affordable, and tailored to your needs. Check out https://naviqus.com now to jumpstart your business for 2026! Podbrand Media - Have you ever considered starting your own podcast for your company or brand? Podbrandmedia.com can help. Affordable and effective content creation and lead generation!
Transcribe →9.12 – Lauren Gibson – Letter Launched
Sep 2700:36:21Tap to summarizeWhat if getting laid off was actually the push you needed to build the life you wanted? Lauren Gibson is a writer and email marketing strategist who helps founders, agency owners, and coaches grow through newsletters and community-building. She's worked across human rights, tech, and entrepreneurship, including the co-founder of Ethereum on a DeFi project. After traveling to 44 countries, earning her MBA at Georgetown, and getting laid off from the NFT market in 2023, Lauren turned what could have been devastating into the catalyst she needed to build her own business. This episode is packed with unique insights on the psychological challenges of transitioning from employee to entrepreneur, especially for highly educated professionals. She's discovered that people with advanced degrees often struggle more because they've been trained to value their worth through employer validation. Her journey from relief at being laid off to building a profitable business in under a year shows that sometimes the scariest moments become the biggest opportunities. Lauren also shares how she overcame analysis paralysis, dropped her ego to take on pro bono work, and built her business through organic marketing. Her insights on the future of work, email lists versus social media, and why consistency beats passion offer practical wisdom for anyone considering the entrepreneurial leap Key Takeaways: Higher Education Can Make Entrepreneurship Harder. Advanced degree holders often struggle more because they're conditioned to seek employer validation. You Can't Connect the Dots Looking Forward. Planning everything perfectly leads to paralysis; start doing and figure it out as you go. Drop Your Ego and Do Free Work Initially. Pro bono clients help you build testimonials and transition from employee to business owner mindset. Consistency Beats Passion in Business. Passion fades regularly, but consistent daily actions keep you moving through tough times. Email Lists Are 42x More Valuable Than Social Media. Focus on building your email list since subscribers are more likely to convert. Connections Drive the Future of Work. As AI automates tasks, human connections become the primary differentiator and value creator. Structure Your Day Like a Company Would. Without a boss setting your schedule, create your own daily routines and stick to them. Listen to the full conversation here: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@risingtidestartups Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rising-tide-startups/id1330525474 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2eq7unl70TRPsBhjLEsNZR Connect with Lauren: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linkwithlauren/ Letter Launched: https://letterlaunched.com/ Website: https://laurenrosegibson.com/ Closing thought: You can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards." Steve Jobs Please leave us an honest rating on Spotify, YouTube, or Apple Podcasts. Shoutout to our Great Sponsors: Naviqus Virtual Services - Hassle-free administrative support services that are efficient, affordable, and tailored to your needs. Check out https://naviqus.com now to jumpstart your business for 2025! Podbrand Media - Have you ever considered starting your own podcast for your company or brand? Podbrandmedia.com can help. Affordable and effective in content creation and lead generation!
Transcribe →7.39 – Jason Shapiro – 82i
Dec 19, 2023Tap to summarizeThis episode, Jason Shapiro, founder of 82i, shares about his transition from investor to founder. 82i provides affordable and accessible advanced financial expertise and advisory services to startups, with an innovative pricing model based on hourly rates and no commitments. Jason Shapiro, the founder of 82i, forged his path from roles in investment firms like Resolve Growth Partners and Clayton Dubilier & Rice. Starting his finance career at Lazard and previously teaching high school math for Teach for America, Jason's deep interest in entrepreneurship led him to establish 82i, aiming to support founders with sophisticated financial expertise and a novel approach to advisory services. Here are the key takeaways: The Story of 82i: Jason brainstormed ideas about entrepreneurship to help entrepreneurs. He wrote down 82 ideas after recalling wisdom from various founders. The 82i as an alternative to employment for startups: 82i provides expert services on a fractional basis for startups. They offer CFO, CRO, and operations services based on an hourly rate with no commitments. This flexible and affordable alternative to traditional employment helps startups address any business issue. Four essential characteristics of entrepreneurship: soft skills are mentioned as crucial for successful entrepreneurship. These include strategic intuition, persistence, emotional intelligence (EQ), and creativity. Strategic intuition involves the ability to make smart decisions even when you don't have all the information. Persistence is the ability to keep pushing forward even in the face of adversity. EQ refers to the ability to understand and manage your own emotions and understand and influence the emotions of others. Creativity involves thinking outside the box and coming up with innovative solutions. The importance of teamwork and a strong company culture: At 82i, personal growth and development are the focus. They prioritize making employees develop faster than they would elsewhere. Listen to the full conversation here: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@risingtidestartups Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rising-tide-startups/id1330525474 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2eq7unl70TRPsBhjLEsNZR Catch up with Jason Shapiro here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasondshapiro Eighty2i: https://www.eighty2i.com If you enjoyed the show, follow, subscribe and please leave us a 5-star rating. Your company or brand needs its own branded podcast. PodBrand Media is an innovative and affordable way to generate new leads and create repurposable content. Learn more at https://Podbrandmedia.com Get your personal podcast off the ground with "How to Start a Podcast in 24 Hours" course by David Ezell. Learn podcasting essentials and save 20% by using the code RISING at realdavidezell.com/courses. Don't wait, start your podcast today.
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