Dan: Hey everyone, it’s Dan Sfera from dansfera.com. It’s just like my name you should see it at the bottom of the screen here. I’m very fortunate today to interview Howard Kingston. Howard has a remarkable story in a remarkable blog right now. It’s called startupremarkable.com and his got 999 days to make 1 million dollars and the countdown is 992 days left. So Howard tells us a little bit about yourself and about startup remarkable.

Howard: Yeah. Cheers, Dan. I’m Howard I’m an Irish guy. I’m living here over at London and this was because a year ago I was doing a PhD that was really [really] boring. I wasn’t really particularly getting excited about it and I decided to quit. So the day I handed in my resignation letter I jumped on a plane and flew to the other side of the world, Australia. And when I was over there I just started [really kinda] jumping in to startups stuff. Started learning lots about web marketing and started blogging and stuff like that and I recently just moved back to London where I am now. I’m working on with different startups and yeah I just wanted to set myself in a somewhat like crazy goal that can just completely take over the world and that is to make a million dollars in 999 days so I just started last week.

Dan: Right! Yeah. So your blog is new right? You just put it up there.

Howard: Pretty much. Yeah.

Dan: And now when you say you work with startups [are you] do you have a piece of their equity? Are you investing in them? Or are you consulting for them.

Howard: At the moment [the main one] my main client is just consultancy. I’m working for them 4 days a week.

Dan: Oh, okay.

Howard: So I go in and I pretty much I do all the marketing for them.

Dan: And so you do look the social media marketing or the traditional offline marketing? How does it work? What type of marketing do you do?

Howard: Well, I, typically work with web based startups that’s kind of the typical one and these guys they’re a web platform so it’s nearly all web based and local events, event management events, but mainly I do email marketing, social media, that kind of just SEO that sort of stuffs.

Dan: So in a way this blog is [I mean] it’s so unique and I would use the word outrageous because no one would ever predict a million bucks in a given amount of time. Is that genuine or is it a little bit of marketing, a little bit of self promotion is it a combination of the two?

Howard: Well I believe I can do it [yeah] 999 days and its two and a half years. I’m gonna be _____ 33 then. And yeah it’s genuine and I believe I can do it. But I suppose from a marketing point of view I know how important it is to have a story and I kinda locked it myself and said what is mine as well as you see a lot of stuff I’m bringing in my blog is marketing related and it has a lot to do with how we can start help people who are starting up their businesses. Stuff that I know just helps them get implemented in their own businesses. But as well as it just being another marketing blog I wanted to have some unique kind of story about it and I’m like uber ambitious and [yeah] so I have this goal and I thought [yeah] that’s perfect for it. It’s a perfect story.

Dan: So take us back to your last startup. I know you mentioned on your blog you were very bored with it. You’re obviously a very smart guy you’re working on your PhD and startup at the same time.

Howard: That’s right.

Dan: What made you quit that and focused on marketing, not only yourself, but helping other companies promote themselves. What kinda made you _____ it?

Howard: I’m _____ now just like what I’m doing in Ireland.

Dan: [Yeah], what made you shift here and kinda move on to what you’re doing now?

Howard: So the startup and PhD that I was doing it was kinda travel life so it was travel based I won’t go in to the details but you know I supposed the PhD and the travel are kinda more of a traditional business based [and after a certain] I was working on it for maybe about 9 months and at a certain point I kinsa saw that my business is quite traditional traditionally focused and my PhD are kinda their not necessarily forward thinking and you have to look a lot of theory that has been proven time and time again _____ risk taking.

Dan: Yeah, they’re very academic and not always… Right, I totally understand. I worked with a lot of doctors and they’re like the opposite of marketers.

Howard: Ok.

Dan: That what makes your story a little bit unique.

Howard: Yeah.

Dan: So how are you able to not only have that kind of mind set but also have this creative marketing type of mindset? That’s very unusual for people who have PhDs or were working on PhDs.

Howard: Well yeah I suppose following on that point [you know] I was doing the PhD during the day but in the evening time I just couldn’t get enough of fast company magazine or wired magazine, Seth Godin, all these kind of guys that are just doing rocking the world and changing the world in a really [really] cool way. And [yeah] during the day I kinda need to read this boring theory about stuff that is like [you know] years old and not really innovative. So [yeah], I just said listened I wanna be able to do anything I want to just throw all my eggs in one basket and just go out there someday. So that’s where really this change came from and even now I must say It is interesting to say about it being interesting mix because I do have kinda creative side but I constantly have to fight that going into too much detail and element of _____ that I learned from my PhD which is like very [very] detailed and for me to get a lot done fast you know this whole like Prieto, 80/20 Principle.

Dan: Right.

Howard: Like 80% of the results and 20% of your work. That’s something I have to fight constantly because I love just kinda going into [getting] doing things in a lot of details as well. So yeah that’s just a challenge I had to worked on but it’s still fun.

Dan: Yeah that’s something all of us entrepreneurs have to worked on and skills, ability and not being involved in everything but building a system to kind of help you achieve your goal. Without, like you said, putting a hundred percent of your time. It’s unique that you have this interesting skills because most startup they have a technical guy and they have like a creative marketing guy and usually become co-founder and you startup by yourself in order to reach the goal I would think that’s about 3 years. A little bit less than 3 years right? 999 days.

Howard: Yeah.

Dan: Do you plan on starting another startup or do you plan on growing your marketing company or all of the above or anything else you’ve got going?

Howard: Totally, yeah. For me to get to that goal it’s gonna have to be a seriously kick-ass startup and that’s where I want to be. As well as where I’m going at the moment, leaving my PhD was positioning myself in the right direction for that and now I’m just working on some great startups here in London waiting until I see the opportunity for the right startup that will bring me to the million dollars if that make sense. So I don’t have a million dollar idea yet but I’m constantly looking and I believe I’m going in the right direction and working with the right people. [So when] I have a couple of ideas but I don’t have one that I know that is ready yet if that make sense.

Dan: Yeah it makes sense. Look I’ll tell you from my experiences. My goal is to buy [the] an NBA franchise for 30 years so I should do a countdown like you have but for 30 years.

Howard: I saw that. What’s that club again?

Dan: It’s LA clippers but I’ll move them to San Diego that’s my goal.

Howard: Nice.

Dan: They just don’t know that yet.

Howard: That’s an awesome goal.

Dan: But I got 30 years so it’s a little longer time for them. I gotta think big picture.

Howard: Okay.

Dan: So yours is unique in that sense and it’s 3 years so it’s very typically a short term goal. And we have a lot of unique interest. I plan a great deal of that from investing, venture, _____ investing, investing in startups. I tried initially consulting with this type of companies and then especially the ones in my meeting in history and they’re branching out. Any similar goals for you or do you just want to create the companies yourself?

Howard: Well yeah I am consulting with the companies at the moment. I definitely want to create my own company that [you know] an idea I don’t have that kind of that urge that like create something that’s what I’m all about. Even though as much as I love working and helping other startups grow, ultimately I just want to take something that’s just like a seed of idea and get kick ass people around me [and]. I’d really get into an incubation like something like [you know] one of these tech stars or something like that and you know just meet the coolest the greatest people, the greatest mind in that area and yeah so definitely my own business growing.

Dan: That’s definitely a plan. startupremarkable.com Howard Kingston. Howard, as we wrap up your specialty is marketing obviously. Any free advice you can give our viewers? How can they better themselves, how can they better promote their companies especially the startup let’s say it’s a startup in online based what’s the best way for them to promote themselves?

Howard: That’s kind of a bit of a broad question but as long as they make sure that they have a compelling story. Now their customer really [really] well where they are where they live. Treat them really you know kinda pretty fundamental stuff. After that you’ll need tactics and stuff but without that fundamental core of knowing who your customers are inside out and what they want then yeah that’s it and everything else on top of that [you know] you can add to.

Dan: And finally because I’m a big reader any books.

Howard: Okay.

Dan: Any books that you’ve read that you recommend for let’s say young entrepreneur or an entrepreneur who’s just getting started out on a company.

Howard: Yeah, I’ll tell you one of the most kinda inspiration ones that you can read and just go “yeah, I can do this” is probably “Crush It” – Gary Veynerchuck [you know].

Dan: Ah yes, very good.

Howard: It probably didn’t have too much depth in it but just like for a whole momentum and inspiration. It’s an awesome book.

Dan: I like Crush It a lot better than Thank You Economy although I like that one too but it’s like after you’ve read Crush It you probably read up on all that kinda stuff that he talked about in Thank You Economy so it wasn’t really as impactful as Crush It was.

Howard: I totally agree, Dan. I kinda read it and [I was like] but I suppose [he’s probably] it’s more tailored for the more corporate market I thought.

Dan: Yeah, that’s what he’ll say if he’s on right now.

Howard: Yeah [yeah]. But I have to check out that one you’re recommending to me before the interview started. What was it called again?

Dan: Oh! MJ DeMarco he wrote the Millionaire Fast Lane.

Howard: Yeah yeah yeah.

Dan: And don’t be turned off by the cover it’s got a Lamborghini on it so it looks like this get rich quick book but it’s really not.

Howard: Sure.

Dan: It’s a fantastic book. I think he did that on purpose to kinda attract the people with that type of mind set and he just kinda flips them over and goes in great detail and full of excellent information on all things related to business. So check it out.

Howard: Awesome I’ll definitely check it out absolutely. Can’t wait.

Dan: And you guys check out startupremarkable.com follow Howard. See if he can reach a million dollars in 992days. Hey I mean I probably have to do the same thing without putting the ticker on there cause I got 30 years so 992 days is three years later and all I have is 27 years left so I better have at least a million bucks myself.

Howard: You said it you gotta have to reinvest that million dollars to get the club you know.

Dan: I might gonna have to follow you and try to copy some of your tactics and we’ll definitely do this again and I need all the help I can get. And if I get any good ideas I’ll send them your way. One good idea is Zinga. Zinga’s going public soon. So if you have extra cash they’re the ones who make Farmville and all that stuff.

Howard: Yeah yeah yeah.

Dan: Invest in Zinga on the 1st day that they start trading and you’ll at least double or triple your money within a month.

Howard: Okay. What you think they’re just gonna rocket?

Dan: Well yeah if you look at LinkedIn during the first hour that they went public they started at forty dollars and now it’s trading at a hundred and it’s a month later so you could’ve have bought in that forty let’s say you woke up a little later you buy it at 50.

Howard: So you think it’s gonna double then? So, if I can just find 500 grand and put it in and then I’ll have my million. And I’ll have 7 days 7 or 8 days gone.

Dan: Yeah you’ll have your million in 30 days so.

Howard: That would be nice.

Dan: Zinga. Just look out for it. It should come out around November. They should start trading.

Howard: Okay.

Dan: The thing is you have to wake up early that day cause if you buy it at the end of the day you’ll might get it at too high of a price. So, get it in like first half an hour that they’re trading if you can.

Howard: Well that’s ok because we’re a few hours ahead here in London.

Dan: There you go. Yeah. That was my problem in LinkedIn I overslept cause I’m here in California. By the time I woke up it was like eighty dollars already.

Howard: Well that’s on Wall Street of course, isn’t it? Eastern Time.

Dan: Right so I still bought some I made like 20% but if I would’ve woken up earlier I would’ve done the same thing and made 50%.

Howard: Yeah, those percentages.

Dan: So, it was an expensive sleeping in day.

Howard: Good stuff.

Dan: Alright, Howard, we’re gonna have you again. We’re gonna check in with you maybe every hundred days or every hundred fifty days.

Howard: Yeah yeah I love to that would be awesome.

Dan: We’ll do several interviews and we’ll hold you to it so in three years we’ll both be a lot older and hopefully richer.

Howard: You said it. Look forward to it.

Dan: Alright, thank you very much, Howard Kingston, from startupremarkable.com. Thank you very much.

Howard: Thanks, Dan.