James credits at least some of his success to his guest's new company, Product Hunt.   Erik Torenberg a founding team-member at Product Hunt, co-founder of Rapt.fm, and associate at Queensbridge Venture Partners joins James today.   Product Hunt seems like such an easy idea and an overnight success on the surface... but really it was years in the making.   But since its launch, it has been on a true rocket-ship ride.   It all started with a relatively small e-mail list... and the brilliant...

Do you need a vacation? How about a place that has such a lingering bad reputation that it's the perfect place to get away to? Interested? Today, James and Claudia call our good friend and the original co-host of Ask Altucher, Aaron Brabham, to find out why he's now living there and what else he has been up to. I can't tell you where he is – you'll have to listen to find out. But once you hear his story, you'll know why he has no plans to come back stateside. And what's he doing there? He's...

James spent an hour interviewing his wife and business partner, Claudia Azula Altucher. They went back to 1999, when Claudia first started to learn about yoga. She knew very little about it, but wanted a discipline that would be physical and get her into a "zone." They went all the way back to Claudia's early childhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was raised by a very loving mother, who unfortunately committed suicide when Claudia was only 17. You'll hear the pain in Claudia's voice as she...

James gives his friend Mitch Joel a call today to talk about a subject that scares the heck out of him — public speaking. James asks Mitch about his philosophy on public speaking. Mitch breaks down public speakers and presenting into three styles of music: The first is the "classical music approach," the second he calls the "jazz improve” approach," and the third he calls the "rock and roll approach." Mitch tells a great story about President Bill Clinton, the type of speaker he is, and also...

James gives his good friend Chris Brogan a call today to talk about the real value of doing a podcast. James asks Chris... Is podcasting worth the time and effort? Chris says "no... and yes." There's no real money in it, but the other benefits are worth every second you put into it. Podcasting helps you with all your other media by broadening your "umbrella." You can take your podcast and create a blog post or a newsletter article and you can tweet about it and post it on Facebook. Plus, as...

Brian Koppelman is back today to continue the fascinating discussion he and James started on his last visit. As Brian says, "Non-fiction books answer a series of questions, whereas fiction books raise a series of questions." On the last show, James made a promise to Brian that he would read more fiction. Brian holds him to it today. This is another amazing conversation between two extremely creative people who are constantly working hard to improve their crafts. Listen today and make sure you...

Today's question is a tough one, as one of our listeners writes in... "My girlfriend has decided to concentrate on her career and wants to take a break from our relationship. How can I support her while satisfying my own needs?" James and Claudia disagree a bit on their answers. Listen here and you can decide who you think is right.

Today's question... "I feel like the life I knew is falling apart before my eyes and my next steps are critical. I would deeply appreciate guidance and support. Here is what's happening. I'm a twenty-year-old college student starting an online business, and last week I flew to New York City behind my parents' backs for a business event (with my own money) and they found out and decided to withdraw all financial support. I called my mom to apologize and she exploded, telling me that starting a...

John Ruhlin joins James and Claudia to talk about what it means to be a great salesman and John has decided to take it to a new level. Before you can sell you have to get in the door. So he introduces himself with a very special gift. Like the time he brought $7000 worth of Brooks Brothers clothes to a prospective clients hotel room and set it up to shock him. It worked even better than he had hoped. John says, if you’re going to send a gift than send it to their inner circle, their...

Of all the assets that you could possibly sell, I bet you've never thought of selling your future . . . but Jason is doing just that. Jason Zook (formerly JasonSurfrapp, Jason Headsetsdotcom and Jason Sadler) is a crazy-at-heart salesman . . . beneath that, he's an impressive content creator with a long track record of success. He's not a painter or a musician, but no one would ever say he's not an artist. Today's he's selling his future. Is he on to something new here? Listen as James does...

Derek Coburn is the master at networking. Derek says, "Going to networking events is a waste of time." You can go to networking events two or three times a week and never realize how much time you're wasting. Traditional networking isn't working anymore. He still goes to larger networking events, but only if there are multiple ways he can win . . . you need to be very selective. Derek wrote the book on networking, Networking is Not Working, and he gives James a recap of some of his best...

Everyone at some point in their career hates their job. For some people it's just temporary, but for others, it gets so bad that they quit. If you decide to quit, everything suddenly changes. The stability of your old job is gone. Now you're on your own, and it's scary. Give yourself permission to be burned out.   Listen to James and Claudia work through how to get through this.

Do you know what the secret mistake that most first time entrepreneurs make? If you’re an entrepreneur than its so to know it. If you don’t you could already be out of business and not even know it.   Listen to James and hear his secret.

Most books are "business card" books. A "business card" book is a book that helps the author establish credentials. It works as a business card. But today, James wants to talk about "braingasm" books. Your brain has an orgasm while you're reading these books – they're that good. James recently wrote a post about books like these, called "The 10 Most Important Books to Expand Your Mind," and today he's going to review a few of them.   Listen to James' list and hear why he thinks they deserve...

  James says, no.

Just don't do it. In honor of National Suicide Prevention Week, Claudia and James felt it was very important to record this podcast. Claudia, being a victim of living through her mother's suicide when she was just a teenager, is passionate about preventing it.   Listen to this extremely important podcast.

This question came in from the Choose Yourself Facebook group: "I've been passed over for my next promotion. I feel like 'the poor employee' instead of "the 'rich employee.'" James says being "The Rich Employee" is a mindset, and this person is already acting as a rich employee. He has realized there's a problem and he's taking steps to fix it, but right now he's hurting. He asks himself, "Why should I accomplish anything?" Listen to James' answer in today's show. Regards, David Newman   P.S....

Get ready – this one is going to be very controversial. You went to college. You took out huge student loans to get your degree. You can barely make ends meet, and your monthly student loan bills are now due. What can you do? Ask for help. Listen to today's show here Regards, David Newman   P.S. The Rich Employee is now also in paperback.

Should you "fire" a really terrible customer? Well, that depends... If that customer happens to be 99% of your business, you have a big problem. But today, James addresses what to do with those customers who won't break your business. You could delegate that customer to another employee. Sometimes that works. You could have a real, honest conversation with that customer, asking them their advice on how you could serve them better. "Help me help you..."   P.S. The Rich Employee is now also in...

Do you want to be a professional speaker? Does having to get up on stage in front of a group of people scare the heck out of you? Today James and Claudia invite Brian Rashid to join them to give us a couple of quick tips to help you if you want to become a public speaker. Brian says you have to get really clear on one topic. Then create a clean one-page that lists bullets points on what you'll talk about, and add in testimonials as soon as you have them. This is a long interview and Brian...

Why did James self-publish his new book, The Rich Employee? He wanted total control over the marketing. The old way of the legacy book publishers is to get the author to march around the country doing book signings at the few book stores that still exist. This just doesn't work anymore. Instead, writers should do the "podcast tour". You'll get in front of millions of potential buyers without ever leaving your house. Remember, you should always choose yourself. Regards, David Newman   P.S. The...

Why did James feel that he had to write his new book, The Rich Employee? He wanted to set the record straight. For the average employee, income is going down while inflation goes up. Industry, knowledge, and management are all being outsourced cheaply to other countries or to technology. Many people mistakenly think that the only solution is entrepreneurship – that "entrepreneurship is the pathway to riches." This is not true. Being an entrepreneur does have great upside but it also has a...

Chris Brogan was gracious enough to allow us to repost an interview he did today with James to talk about, everything…including the release of James brand new book; The Rich Employee that hit the Amazon bookstore today. They jumped onto a platform new to many of us, Blab.im and did an hour long interview. A lot of people jumped in to ask questions including Joel Comm, Michael Stelzner, Mitch Jackson and so many others. We hope you enjoy this as we play with the best way to deliver you our...

This weekend Dr. Wayne Dyer passed away. James wants to recognize the influence Wayne Dyer has had on his life. We're very sad about his passing. Here is one of the last interviews Wayne Dyer has done and it is with James...  During that interview James asked Dr. Dyer what he saw as the arc of his career. "What has your message been and how have you seen it evolve?" Without hesitating, Dr. Dyer responded... "Well, it's really been always about self-reliance, in one form or another. I've often...