Building Apps that People Actually Love w/ Antoni Tzavela | Ep 1
Antoni Tzavelas has started over more times than most people would be willing to.
He launched a fashion label with his wife in 1999 and sold clothes across North America, until fast fashion hit Canada and the industry imploded. He went back to school, spent nine years as a systems admin, moved into cloud computing, taught it, became a software development coach, then a keynote speaker on happiness at work, then a coach. When that last pivot stalled, he hit rock bottom. A $9,000 tax bill landed, so he put his MacBook up on Facebook Marketplace, and the buyer ran off down the street with it.
Within a month, someone asked him to build an app. He said yes before he knew how. Eleven months later he’s built more than 30 of them (including Growth Habit OS, which completely changed my business) and he’s doing $15K to $20K months.
In this conversation we get into:
- The three questions Antoni asks before building any app. He said them off the cuff and I stopped him because it’s a real framework.
- Why treating AI as a productivity tool misses the bigger opportunity, which is creativity.
- The app that saved a marketing company around 15 hours a week, so they never had to make a hire.
- His “subtraction audit” for getting the shit work off your calendar for good.
- How daily prayer and meditation carried him through the stretch when the bills weren’t getting paid.
If you started your business for freedom and somehow built yourself a job instead, Antoni has some ideas about what to take off your plate first.
Find Antoni
smilingbowtie.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonit/
Instagram: @smilingbowtie
Find Robb
growthhabit.org
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbgilbear/
Instagram: @robbgilbear
YouTube: @RobbGilbear
