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Ann Handley is the world’s first ever Chief Content Officer. She’s also a marketing guru who champions content as a way to connect with potential customers at her company Marketing Profs. She’s the best-selling author of the book “Everybody Writes” and has been cited by Forbes as the most influencer woman in social media. She walks us through everything you need to know about developing a major competitive advantage - your brand’s voice. Ann digs into the amazing and creative brand of Freaker USA and gives you advice about how to make sure your brand’s voice is heard.

If you want to be bigger, braver, and bolder to succeed with your business, there is perhaps no better example than an upstart gelato company in Toronto called Death In Venice. The company has earned rave reviews from foodie bloggers and restaurant critics alike. So how does a gelato company act big, brave, and bold? By designing gelato flavors NO ONE else in the world has thought of yet. Anyone care for a scoop of Thai Peanut Soy Fish, a cup of Chocolate Crisp Cricket or perhaps a cone of Mealworm?

Businesses and entrepreneurs are often faced with the question of, if I build, it will they come? How do you arrive at an answer? It’s tough, especially when you’re just getting started, when you have no money, and you have no time. This is the story of one startup and how they answered that question as they went from a campus project to a 25 million dollar Google acquisition in only 18 months.

For the past 20 years, Cameron Herold has had a hand in some of the most successful businesses in North America. He helped grow 1-800-GOT-JUNK from $2 million dollars to over $100 million dollars in annual revenue. He helped build College Pro Painters into the largest residential house painting business in the world and Boyd Auto Body into the largest collision repair shop in North America. So, it’s safe to say that Cameron knows a thing or two about running a business. And he’s also got some pretty strong opinions on how you should run yours. Cameron believes that if you want to grow your business quickly, you need to develop a vision for the future. But his recipe for writing a vision statement is probably very different from anything you’ve ever done before.

Ryan North is a computer programmer, humourist, and New York Times bestselling author. He writes a comic for Marvel, owns an ad network and has run some of Kickstarter’s most successful campaigns ever. He’s a DIY entrepreneur who’s managed to turn his passion into a business. Find out his secret to keeping so many irons in the fire and how he’s turned all of those projects into a successful business.

Anne Mahlum believes running a business is a lot like a good workout. Learn how she used that philosophy to build a chain of fitness studios that cater to over-achievers in the nation’s capital, including first lady Michelle Obama.

Once you've got an online store, you might start thinking about expanding into bricks and mortar retail. Maybe a booth at a trade show or one of those small-scale, temporary pop-up stores. But how do you connect digital information to your physical business? Find out how to get beyond coupon codes and start making meaningful customer relationships.

Brian Scudamore is the business mind behind the incredibly successful, multi-million dollar franchise 1-800-GOT-JUNK. And he attributes a lot of his success to a very simple principle, the power of dreaming up big goals and rallying your team to make the seemingly impossible possible.

There’s a line in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life where Old Man Potter, who runs the town’s bank, says to George Bailey about his savings and loan, “Are you running a business or a charity?” Well as it turns out, the two aren’t so different. There are payrolls to meet, bills to pay, products to get to market, competition literally in the field, and a hundred and one problems you never see coming. Meet a reality TV producer and a music biz veteran who learned some key lessons about being entrepreneurs by starting their own African water charity.

Flixel is a successful tech startup that makes mesmerizing hybrids of videos and photographs called cinemagraphs. The company was honoured with an Apple Design Award and Best of 2014 in the App Store, and they’re integrated into Facebook. They are thriving… but they almost didn’t make it. Like many tech startups, they got to where they are today by persevering through a roller coaster ride full of unexpected twists and turns, including a competitor with the SAME idea that beats them to market. Here’s how they did it.

If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur but you’re not quite ready to give up your day job, you might be thinking about a ‘side hustle’ - a business you can run in your spare time. We’ve got some advice on how to do it, some pitfalls to watch out for, and how you know when it’s time to take the plunge and make your side hustle your full-time job.

Networking is an important part of business. It’s pretty much essential if you’re an entrepreneur. So what do you do if it doesn’t come naturally to you? Or what if it downright terrifies you? Well here’s the thing, dear introvert - maybe you’re just looking at it the wrong way.

Charlie Moyer was an unemployed military veteran with absolutely no ecommerce or online marketing experience. But in one year he grew his men’s grooming company from $3000 to $375,000 in monthly sales. And it started with a simple $20 investment. He shares the secret formula behind his remarkable success.

Daymond John has launched a lot of products over the years, both as one of the founders of urban fashion line, FUBU, and an investor on Shark Tark. These are his essential lessons to marketing your new product.

Some say that it’s smart to zig when everyone else zags. It’s not easy to do, but it’s worked for Jeff Phillips. Unlike the hordes of hopeful entrepreneurs who decide to decamp to tech hubs like Silicon Valley and San Francisco in search of success, Jeff Philipp decided to do the opposite. He didn’t go anywhere. The problem is that his home is in a remote area of the Canadian arctic. And he’s built a company with tens of millions of dollars in revenue, literally in the middle of nowhere. His company’s motto? Innovation doesn’t care where you live.

What do you do when your look is out of date? Get a makeover. The same goes for your business. There comes a time in the life of every company when you need a brand refresh. But how do you know when it’s time? And what exactly do you do next? Well, a marketing agency in Austin, Texas, that focuses on re-branding recently underwent some rebranding of its own. And we got them to break down the process, step by step, as they put themselves through their own process.

Back in 1990 Dov Baron’s career and life almost ended. He was rock climbing when he fell 120 feet and landed on his face. The impact shattered his face, disintegrating some of his upper jaw and fracturing his lower jaw in four places. Dov went through 9 reconstructive surgeries and the experience changed his life. Today, Dov Baron is an author and mentor. Inc Magazine put him on their list of top Business speakers and thinkers. The lesson his accident taught him? Entrepreneurship is about facing and working through pain to find the path to success.

For a lot of entrepreneurs, the moment they knew they’d arrived was when they got their products into retail giants like Target and Walgreens. It’s almost never easy. So how does that process actually work? What we usually see is the end result— products on the shelves — so it’s tough to get a sense of how hard it can be for small companies make that happen. We followed one entrepreneur for several months, got a behind-the-scenes look at working with mass retailers, and returned with some great advice for anyone looking for retail placement success.

You’d be hard pressed to find someone who ISN’T dealing with stress of some kind. For entrepreneurs, though, it’s a major concern. A recent survey found that entrepreneurs say that maintaining a small business causes twice as much stress as maintaining a healthy relationship, nearly three times as much stress as raising children, and more than four times the stress of managing their personal finances. And for those who run businesses, that stress needs to be managed, or there can be consequences...not just for the founder, but for the business itself. So close your eyes, breathe deeply, and prepare to learn how to relax when it comes to your business.

Christine Day has a unique specialty - she blows up stagnant industries with big, exciting ideas. She helped disrupt the coffee industry at Starbucks. Then she turned the downward-dog female sports apparel industry into a glowing sunrise salute as the CEO of Lululemon, where she grew the stock by over 400%. And today, she’s rethinking healthy eating at a new startup called Luvo. Want to know how to you can do it, too? Listen up - Christine’s going to share all her expert advice on how to disrupt the market with your business.