Explore every episode of the podcast Problem Solvers

Jon Taffer, host of the hit TV show "Bar Rescue", has sat on both sides of the franchising table. He's been a franchisee, including one franchise you'd never guess. Now, as founder of Taffer's Tavern, he runs his own franchise system. And even with 40-plus years in business, he's shopping for his next franchise right now. That perspective means he knows exactly what to ask before buying in. The question he says matters most is one most would-be franchisees never think to ask. Timestamps: 00:00 Jon Taffer's surprising next business move 00:30 Why franchising made Jason nervous 03:10 Jon's franchise résumé: from Hooters franchisee to Taffer's Tavern 04:22 Turnkey vs. brand: what you're really buying 07:02 Why so many corporate pros are jumping into franchising 08:08 The biggest perk: you can sit in it before you buy it 09:53 Beyond burgers: franchises in every industry 11:12 Jon's doggy daycare hunt and Jason's franchise near-miss 14:39 The FDD: the document you can't skim 16:58 The #1 red flag Jon won't touch with a 10-foot pole 20:49 The questions that reveal a franchisor's sales muscle 22:57 Jon's six-step vetting process 25:18 What the franchisor does vs. what's on you 28:13 Who Jon wants running a Taffer's Tavern 30:31 Cutting through the noise: Doritos Locos Tacos and the five-word mission 35:52 Local store marketing: own four or five blocks 39:05 What's new in franchising: smaller footprints, fewer days 40:37 The marketing opportunity hiding in every box 43:42 What World Cup fans revealed about franchise brands 44:49 How to take your first step Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Raj Mehra had it all: a personal reason to build, a hot new technology, a sector ripe for disruption. Then he put his product in front of real users and watched them fail to use it. So he did the hard thing. He listened. What he learned wasn't just a fix. It was a completely different company. This is the story of Sage Healthcare, and it's also the story of what it takes to break up with your own idea. 0:00 – Intro: the "forbidden love" of founders and their original ideas 1:36 – Meet Raj Mehra, CEO & co-founder of Sage 2:33 – What Sage does today (senior care tech platform) 3:14 – The origin story: his grandmother's fall 3:57 – The original hypothesis — building a voice app (Alexa/Google Home era) 5:24 – Building the "expensive paperweight" before validating with users 7:56 – The co-founders join, and the decision to finally talk to users 8:56 – What they learned: hardware was outdated, but voice wasn't the answer 11:44 – Feeling relief, not defeat, when the original idea didn't hold up 12:46 – Finding the middle ground: off-the-shelf hardware + exceptional software 16:39 – Taking the product to market — first customer deployments 17:00 – Solving the hard technical and life-safety challenges 19:27 – Using design sprints to navigate every major crossroads 20:36 – Filtering ideas through the "North Star": does it improve care? 22:15 – Advice for early-stage founders navigating a new market 23:57 – Advice #2: knowing when the technology is actually ready 26:15 – Where to find Sage, and closing thoughts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jason sits down with Sebastian Wernicke, data scientist and author of Data Inspired: Building an Organizational Culture of Inquiry for Lasting Transformation, to talk about why "data-driven" companies so often end up trapped inside what they already know instead of discovering what their customers actually need. They get into the sports car company that ignored its own sales numbers, the one question that reveals whether your company can actually handle being wrong, and how Jason's own newsletter taught him he'd built himself a very comfortable cage. Timestamps 0:00 The Hit Song Formula That Failed  0:27 Welcome to Problem Solvers  0:38 Why a Song About Pop Music Matters to Your Business  2:45 Meet Sebastian Wernicke, Author of Data Inspired  3:06 Why Data Feels Like Comfort (And Why That's a Trap)  4:52 Two Ways to Use Data: Optimization vs. Innovation  5:06 Google's "50 Shades of Blue" Experiment  6:38 Data-Driven vs. Data-Inspired, Defined  7:46 The Sports Car Company's Weird Stereo  10:25 How Do You Know Which Outlier to Trust?  13:19 Use Data to Support a Bold Guiding Policy, Not a Safe One  14:20 The Medical Device Company's Real Diagnosis  16:29 Jason's Own Data Trap: A/B Testing His Newsletter  20:59 Error Reduction vs. Loss Aversion  22:24 Can a Junior Analyst Challenge the Boss in Your Company?  26:03 The Book: Data Inspired Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before he was Deep Pocket Monster, Pat Flynn was the face behind Smart Passive Income. Eighteen years later, he's ready to pour everything into Pokémon, but he's not willing to abandon the community that built him. So he made a call most founders never make. Liz Wilcox, an email marketing expert with her own exit story, joins him to explain what happens next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A few years ago, Jason rediscovered his love of Pop-A-Shot, the arcade basketball game. What he didn't know was the whole story behind Pop-A-Shot's sudden renaissance. Tony Stucker, the CEO of Pop-A-Shot, joined the show to unpack the brand strategy behind the turnaround and what it takes to extract new growth from a legacy asset. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jason once got an edit back covered in red, all caps, like he'd been screamed at on paper. He swore he'd never do that to anyone, but it turns out most of us are still getting feedback wrong. Caroline Webb, author of Leadership Intelligence, breaks down the one shift that makes people actually hear you. It's simpler than you think, and it starts with what you say before the criticism.. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Will AI make entrepreneurship easier—or make entrepreneurs irrelevant?In this episode of Problem Solvers, Jason Feifer sits down with LinkedIn Chief Economic Opportunity Officer Aneesh Raman, co-author of Open to Work: How to Get Ahead in the Age of AI, to rethink the biggest fear around AI and business: that technology is coming for your job, your company, and your edge.Jason shares his “AI is a microwave” theory: it’s a powerful new tool, but we’re still learning what belongs in it—and what absolutely doesn’t. Aneesh explains why AI is lowering the cost of starting a business, making it easier to research markets, build prototypes, and test ideas fast. But as access goes up, so does the premium on something AI cannot replicate: your unique perspective, taste, curiosity, courage, communication, and lived experience.They break down why the future of work is not about humans becoming better AI prompters. It’s about becoming more entrepreneurial, more creative, and more distinctly human. In a world flooded with AI-generated sameness and “AI slop,” the people who win will be the ones who use AI to amplify—not replace—their judgment, originality, and connection. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Executive Coach Neal Schore says that fear-driven habits are quietly stealing at least an hour from your day, every day. Drawing from decades of coaching founders, operators, and unicorn CEOs, Neal explains how anxiety about being fired, judged by boards, or seen as “not enough” leads to endless Slack chains, diluted meetings, and mental “swirls” that crush focus and time. Neal and Entrepreneur Editor in Chief Jason Feifer unpack why good things often start with worst-case scenarios (like getting fired), how to stop overcompensating out of fear, and why managing you—not everyone else—is the only way to reclaim your calendar. He shares practical tools from his new book, The 25th Hour, like the “clarifying question” that can turn a 7-hour crisis into a 7-minute conversation, the devil/angel metaphor for fear versus real performance issues, and a simple five-minute “swirl limit” to stop catastrophic thinking from hijacking your nights and weekends. If you’re a founder or senior leader stuck in loss-aversion, overcommitting to boards, or living in constant “what if I get fired?” mode, this conversation shows you how to get out of your own way, protect your time, and even see job loss or client churn as the start of better fits—not the end of your career. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tom Szaky built TerraCycle into a recycling giant, then decided recycling wasn't good enough. His new venture, Loop, aimed to replace disposable packaging with reusable containers for brands like Tide and Häagen-Dazs. Consumers loved it. Retailers loved it. So why did it nearly die in four out of five test markets? Szaky breaks down the hidden flaw that almost killed Loop, and the simple insight that finally made it scale. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here's a number that should stop you: 11,000 pairs of jeans, sold in 36 hours, from one video posted by a customer with just 5,000 followers. That's the end result of years of work by Brieane Olson, CEO of Pacsun, who decided her brand needed to stop talking at its customers and start building with them. In this episode, Olson shares strategies from her new book, Co-Created, and what she thinks most companies get wrong about "community" in the first place. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Leadership expert Ryan Hawk tackles one of the biggest traps for ambitious entrepreneurs: dabbling in everything and committing to nothing. Ryan unpacks the idea of “beefing up your obituary” by becoming the kind of person people remember for deep work and sustained excellence—not half-finished projects.If you’ve been spreading yourself thin across side hustles, content platforms, and random opportunities, this conversation will help you identify your “one main thing,” build an ecosystem around it, and know when you’re still just coasting versus when it’s time to dive. Check out Ryan's new book, The Price of Becoming. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Naveen Jain has built multiple billion-dollar companies all without being the smartest person in the room. His secret? He asks the questions the experts are too expert to ask. In this episode, Naveen joins Jason to make the case that your biggest weakness might actually be your biggest asset - if you're curious enough to use it. Naveen breaks down the framework behind his new book, Counterintuitive, and why approaching every problem like a two-year-old could just be the smartest trick of all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jason and Emily McCarthy built GoRuck into the leading name in rucking. But when rising costs forced them to raise prices, that community became more than a marketing asset. It became the reason the moment didn't turn into a crisis. Jason and Emily explain why with a loyal community being upfront with bad news is always the smarter play. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You know what you do, but does anyone else? There's often a gap between what you offer and how you explain it. In this episode, Jason shares his framework for closing that gap, so your audience knows exactly what you're offering, and why you're the right choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A viral ad from Columbia Sportswear caught Jason's eye. After he wrote about it on LinkedIn, the company reached out. So Jason sat down with Tim Boyle, CEO and third-generation owner of Columbia Sportswear, to find out where the idea came from and what it reveals about how to reposition a legacy brand. The outdoor apparel industry had gotten serious and self-important. Columbia decided it was time to bring back fun. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Having one of the most recognizable and beloved celebrities in the world attached to your brand seems like it should be an easy win. But getting someone to buy once is one thing. Getting them to buy again is the real test. Cordell Broadus (Snoop Dogg's son) and his business partner Sam Rockwell explain what it actually takes to build an ice cream brand like Dr. Bombay, one that delivers value beyond a famous face. In this episode, they break down how to make a celebrity partnership work on a deeper level and how to work with celebrities in a way that's authentic, not just convenient. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The kids' juice aisle looks completely covered. So does the protein market. Most people would conclude there's no room for anything new. Ciara didn't. The Grammy-winning musician and mom of four was watching her daughter refuse every protein option put in front of her. So Ciara started looking for solutions and met Chris Koch, a CPG entrepreneur. Together, they founded Frosh, the first protein-enhanced juice for kids. She sits down with Jason to share a lesson in how the best opportunities are often hiding inside the markets everyone else has already written off. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sami Inkinen is a three-time founder and world-class triathlete. A triathlete! And yet he went to the doctor and discovered he was pre-diabetic. The news triggered a series of changes including a pivot away from his real estate startup Trulia toward his healthcare company Virta Health, where he's now on a mission to reverse metabolic disease in one billion people. And along the way, he developed something he calls sustainable high performance. It’s the idea that if you're building something that takes decades, you'd better figure out how to last that long. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Rusenko built Weebly from a dorm room start-up with friends to a business with 300 employees and over $200 million in revenue. But somewhere around employee 25, he hit a wall and realized the problem wasn't his team. It was him. A chance dinner with Richard Branson changed everything. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The President of Burger King, Tom Curtis, knew the brand had gotten stale and that customers had drifted away. So he did something almost no executive does. He gave out a phone number and told people to call him directly. Over 41,000 calls came in.  What followed was a viral moment but more importantly, it became a real-time feedback engine. Tom sits down with Jason to talk about why he opened the phone lines, what Burger King has actually done with everything it heard, and how the brand spent four years quietly rebuilding before it ever asked customers to come back. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Unsure what to charge for your services? You're not alone. Ilana Golan struggled with that too, until she developed a framework she now teaches to others through her Leap Academy. On this episode, Ilana helps you set your rates and get what you deserve. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you're a 90s kid like Jason, you probably grew up with Tetris. But not like Maya Rogers grew up with Tetris. Her dad brought the game from the  Soviet Union to the rest of the world. Now Maya runs the brand herself, and the job is trickier than it sounds. How do you honor something people feel deeply nostalgic about while also making sure a seven-year-old in 2026 cares about it too? Maya joins Jason to break down the strategy, including one surprisingly powerful legal move that keeps anyone from just copying the game and calling it something else. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do you find your first customers? It’s a question first-time founders are often flummoxed by. But Keith Krach has developed a tried-and-true strategy—starting during his days at Ariba (which sold for billions), and extending into his current time as chairman of Docusign. In this special live edition of Problem Solvers, taped at Entrepreneur Live in 2018, Keith explains how to turn a company’s first customers into valuable ambassadors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's a noisy world. If you want to succeed, you must learn to stand out — or to become, as Jason calls it, "singular." In this episode, he offers a formula for increasing your value: Instead of relying on your expertise or quality of products alone, you must combine that expertise with a well-communicated unique perspective. Here’s how to become the only person people think of when they need what you do. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's the 450th episode. Okay, it's actually the 451st. But close enough. Every 50 episodes, Jason steps back and reflects on the show: how it's changed, why it's changed, and what he's learned from making it. And this time, he shares the formula for why it’s changed over the years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danielle Sepsy started developing her secret scone recipe at 13. That recipe built The Hungry Gnome. But to grow, she had to share it with her team, and eventually with the world in her new book, The Scone Queen Bakes. So how do you scale a secret without losing your edge? Danielle figured it out. And this week, she's telling us how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if the secret to winning in business isn't competing better? What if it's competing less? That's the idea behind category creation. And this week, Jason is speaking with Kevin Maney, co-author of The Category Creation Formula, to break down exactly how it works. Kevin lays out a simple but powerful formula for creating and owning your category. Drawing on real-world examples ranging from the minivan to White Claw, Maney shares his strategies for success. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Everyone says to “build your personal brand,” but how do you actually do that on LinkedIn? In this episode, Jason talks with Laura Lorenzetti, Senior Director and Executive Editor at LinkedIn News, about what really works and what doesn’t. They walk through how to create content that sparks conversation and build a repeatable strategy for growing your personal brand. Along the way, they bust some common LinkedIn myths, and Laura shares when the perfect time to post on LinkedIn really is. Whether you're growing a business or a career, this is how to make LinkedIn work for you. This is a new edit of an older episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Jason is sharing something different and special. His wife, Jennifer Miller, has a new podcast — a true-crime story about mistaken identity, impossible choices, and one man who goes to prison for his twin brother's crime. It's called Blood Will Tell. Here, you'll find the first episode. You can find the rest by subscribing to Blood Will Tell wherever you listen to Problem Solvers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Melissa Bernstein co-founded Melissa & Doug and built it into a billion-dollar children's toy company. Along the way, she learned a lot about entrepreneurship, which she shares in her new book The Heart of Entrepreneurship. Today, for the first time publicly, she shares the three-part strategy she used to fight back and what happened the moment new ownership stopped following it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every entrepreneur has been told to push through, stay the course, and that grit is everything. But advice like that leaves out that some of the smartest, most successful people in business got there by quitting at exactly the right moment. So how do you know when that moment is? Dr. Anthony Klotz, organizational psychologist and author of Jolted, has spent years studying exactly this question. He joins the show to share his framework for figuring out whether you should stay and fight harder, or finally walk away. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kevin Smith went from making art to being the art and learned the hard way that when you become the product, there's no off switch. In this episode, Smith breaks down how he's stayed relevant for 30 years by treating fans like the bosses they actually are. Plus: Jason shares how he once convinced his college to spend their full year's speaker budget just to get Kevin Smith on campus and what happened when they talked afterward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joey Zwillinger, the founder of Allbirds and Biologica, sat down with Jason to talk about the challenges of finding your ideal customer. Joey's done it both ways. Starting with a product and searching for the right people to buy it, and starting with a problem and building the solution. In this conversation, he breaks down what actually works when you're hunting for product-market fit, and what to do when your customers surprise you (because they will). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nobody likes meetings. But there’s a good reason for that. Organizational behavior expert Dr. Rebecca Hinds, author of the new book Your Best Meeting Ever, explains why most meetings are a massive waste of time and what to do about it. She shares a simple test to determine if a meeting actually deserves to be on your calendar. Plus, Jason also discovers something uncomfortable about his own approach to meetings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For sole proprietors and self-employed professionals, taxes can feel confusing, time-consuming, and easy to get wrong. What counts as a deduction? How do you save money on your taxes? And how do you stay organized when you’re doing everything yourself? In this episode, CPA and tax expert with TurboTax, Lisa Greene-Lewis breaks down how solo business owners can make taxes simpler, smarter, and less stressful. We talk about common mistakes new business owners make, overlooked opportunities to save money, what they need to know for the upcoming season, and how the right tools and systems can help you stay focused on growing your business—not wrestling with paperwork. With the business tax filing deadlines are approaching quickly, with many returns due March 16, 2026, understanding what has changed and acting on it with the right guidance may be one of the most practical decisions a solopreneur makes this year. Learn more about filing your taxes with Intuit TurboTax, visit http://turbotax.com/business Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gary Vaynerchuk joins Jason to share why he believes traditional social media is fading and where smart businesses should focus next. He explains how to find the audience you’re overlooking, and offers a practical framework for getting your content in front of the right people in 2026. Plus, why one of his agencies is rebranding and what it signals about where marketing is headed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Moments Lab co-founders and identical twins, Frederic & Philippe Petitpont, realized they were in the wrong role. The CEO became CTO. The CTO became CEO. As a result, the business got stronger. In this episode, they break down how to spot role misalignment and how putting the company first can unlock real scale. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re taught that good leaders decide fast. But that belief may be holding you back. Harvard instructor and author of Manage Yourself to Lead Others, Margaret Andrews, explains why effective decisions often take longer and how rushing creates more work later.Together, she and Jason explore the mystic around leadership and decisions. Plus, one easy way to know if your meetings are effective. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jersey Mike’s just hit No. 1 on Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500,  as it enters a new era of ownership and leadership. New CEO Charlie Morrison explains how the brand plans to grow without breaking what already works. Plus, he reveals whether Danny DeVito is really going to lose his job to Eli Manning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brand historian Jason Liebig explains how nostalgia works as a strategic tool, not just a retro look. He breaks down why familiar emotions build trust faster and how brands use nostalgia without copying the past. Plus, practical ways founders can apply it through design, storytelling, and customer experience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listener Melissa calls the Help Line today because she's experiencing some analysis paralysis (haven't we all). Jason gives her a formula to help her determine which parts of her work she should change; plus, he shares how to failure-proof her pivot by making it into an experiment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yes, you can start a million-dollar business in a weekend. Noah Kagan, founder of AppSumo and author of the book "Million Dollar Weekend", shares how the foundations of a great business come together quickly, and why it's worth moving fast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Building brand awareness doesn’t have to cost big bucks. It can be as simple as leveraging your relationships in the community. The founders of Cold Blooded and Bizarre share how they built a beloved local brand by showing up everywhere their community already gathers, and turning simple touchpoints into constant reminders. Plus a two headed snake! This episode is brought to you by CLA. With you on every step of your financial journey. To learn more, visit CLAConnect.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You’ve seen Robert Herjavec make deals on Shark Tank, but do you actually know how he thinks? In this candid conversation, Robert breaks down the real questions investors should ask, and the common mistakes founders keep making. He also warns about the wrong lesson some people take from Shark Tank. And yes, if he still thinks about passing on Scrub Daddy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Lew Frankfort joined Coach in 1979, he knew nothing about fashion but he understood people. That skill became the foundation of his leadership and the reason he transformed Coach from a small, overlooked accessories brand into a global powerhouse. In this episode, Lew shares the interview strategy he’s refined over decades and written up in his new book Bag Man. He breaks down the questions he asks, the tests he uses, and the surprising single trait he believes matters more than experience or résumé. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feeling stuck? Uninspired? Unsure how to find the right answer to the problem you're trying to solve? Scott Anthony can get you unstuck. He teaches strategy at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmout, and is the author of the book Epic Disruptions. He walks us through simple, science-backed strategies to reboot your creativity, the psychology behind peak performance, and why the worst way to solve a problem is to force it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What makes an idea truly worthy of your time? Nir Zicherman, co-founder of Anchor and former Head of Audiobooks at Spotify, thought he’d left the startup world behind. But he kept wondering if he could help people learn in a better way. And oboe.com was born. In this conversation, Nir and Jason explore how to know when you’ve found something that’s more than a project. It’s your next calling. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Jared Foster of Times Ticking bought a small watch shop, he realized one question was killing sales. So he replaced it with a simple, repeatable strategy that made customers feel welcome and ready to buy. That shift helped Times Ticking land on Entrepreneur’s list of America’s Favorite Mom & Pop Shops and turn quick repairs into big sales. This episode is brought to you by CLA. With you on every step of your financial journey. To learn more, visit CLAConnect.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 Executive coach Muriel Wilkins joins the show to unpack one of the biggest growth blockers in business. The leader who needs to be involved in everything. Drawing from her new book Leadership Unblocked, she breaks down how that urge forms, why it destroys trust and agency inside organizations, and how to recalibrate your time toward the work that actually drives results. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

NBA stars don’t open up easily, but Taylor Rooks makes it look effortless. The lead host of Amazon’s NBA on Prime joins the show to share how she earns trust fast, even from the most guarded people in the room. It’s not just about asking questions. Whether you’re interviewing the team or leading it, trust is the foundation of every successful relationship. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices