Episode summary: Danny Iny is a serial entrepreneur who runs a business called Mirasee, which serves visionary businesses and entrepreneurs who have something of value to share with their audience. He’s also the executive producer of all Mirasee FM Original podcasts.

“Making it is not a permanent state,” says Danny. Instead, on your path to making it you’re going to stumble and fall, over and over again, until you learn how to not stumble. “It’s all a kind of curriculum, a learning opportunity that’s really, really important and really powerful,” he continues. And it’s important to understand that your happiness and fulfillment aren’t necessarily tied to your bank account balance. In this episode, Danny shares the story of how he started his entrepreneurial journey as a young boy, and how his view on business success and making it has evolved since becoming a father.

“For me, what matters is the contribution, feeling like I'm making a difference to someone. And growth for myself.” – Danny Iny

Guest Bio:

Danny Iny is an educator, author, and entrepreneur who is on a mission to reimagine business and transform education. His love-hate relationship with education began when he dropped out of high school at age 15 to start his first business. His frustrations with education were driven home many years later when he completed his MBA from Queen’s University School of Business.

As the founder and CEO of Mirasee, a business education company, Danny has developed innovative training programs that have raised the bar for online education. These include the Course Builder’s Laboratory, Business Ignition Bootcamp, and ACES Club. Over 5,000 value-driven entrepreneurs have enrolled in these programs.

Danny is a sought-after expert known for his knowledge, insights, and integrity. His published books include Leveraged Learning, Teach and Grow Rich, The Audience Revolution, and Engagement from Scratch!.

He has guest lectured at institutions including McGill and Yale universities and has spoken on stage at various industry conferences and at Mirasee’s biannual live event, LIFT. His writing has appeared on Inc, Copyblogger, Success, and other websites.

Danny’s entrepreneurial journey has had many twists and turns. He built Mirasee after his previous startup imploded in 2008, leaving him $250K in debt. But he’s fond of saying that “failure is only failure if it happens in the last chapter; otherwise, it’s a plot twist.”

Today, Mirasee is a seven-figure business with 30+ employees distributed all over the world.

His latest book, Online Courses A Business Parable about Creating Freedom by Teaching Your Gift,

is based on a decade of research, testing, and working with thousands of students. Online Courses reveals the opportunities and challenges for online course creators in today’s market, where people around the world are waking up to the power and excitement of online education.

Resources or websites mentioned in this episode:

Mirasee 

Credits:

• Guest – Danny Iny
• Produced and assembled: Cynthia Lamb with support from Geoff Govertsen
• Executive producer: Danny Iny
• Audio Post Supervisor: Evan Miles, Christopher Martin
• Audio Post Production by Post Office Sound
• Music soundscape: Chad Michael Snavely 

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Music and SFX credits: 

1. Track Title: Sweet Loving Waltz

Artist Name(s): Sounds Like Sander

Writer Name: S.L.J. Kalmeijer

Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

2. Track Title: The Sunniest Kids

Artist Name(s): Rhythm Scott

Writer Name: Scott Roush

Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

3. Track Title: Coffee And Cigarettes

Artist Name(s): Reveille

Writer Name: Brendan St. Gelais

Publisher Name: BOSS SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONS

4. Track Title: Red And Blue

Artist Name(s): Federico Ferrandina

Writer Name: Federico Ferrandina

Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

• Episode transcript: Your Definition of Making It Is Always Evolving (Danny Iny)

[00:00:06] I'm Danny Iny, and this is making it the show that offers tips for making it online. I run a company called Mirasee. I teach people how to grow their online businesses and particularly how to create online courses. 

     So I've been an entrepreneur, I like to say for longer than my adult life, I quit school when I was 15 to start my first business. Um and an early memory is that I was involved in the telecom startup. So you know, we were negotiating with one of the big telecoms in the region and we, me and a business partner who was a quote unquote grown up, Um we go to this meeting, it's it's like an evening meeting. And it's the two of us and maybe eight executives around the table. And I remember this so vividly, the person who was running the meeting, his assistant comes in, she says would any of you gentlemen like coffee? And then she turns to me and says, if you like, I can get you a hot chocolate. And you know, I was mortified, my face turned red. I was the youngest guy in the room for a very, very long time And now I'm in my late 30s, this is the oldest I've ever been, which is a joke, but not a joke, but being the youngest guy in the room and being the guy that you know, and being an entrepreneur is usually not most people's path of least resistance to success. There's a lot of uncertainty there. I could have, you know, I could have been a doctor, I could have gone to business school, I could have not dropped out of high school, right? There are a lot of things I could have done and so you know, combine the uncertainty and the second guessing with being the youngest guy in the room and you come up with a real chip on your shoulders, right of like you know you got something to prove and combine that chip on your shoulders. That's something to prove with some successes and you can develop a massive amount of arrogance right? It's like I knew it,...