The Captain Coder Podcast

Can you still get good results with organic social media? That’s the big question that Ania of Ask Ania Media and I are discussing in this wide-ranging episode. No ad budgets needed here! If you want to get the most out of your time on Instagram, this episode is perfect for you. We’re Gonna Dive Into : [05:07]: The importance of organic traffic and storytelling [06:11]: What the algorithm really w...

Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to grow your service-based business. Are you ignoring it? For many of us, we believe that “no one” opens emails so why should we send them. But email marketing has one of the best ROI potentials for any digital marketing method out there. In fact, email marketing has the potential to drive an impressive $36 for every dollar you spend . When yo...

Trying to build your service-based business online? Your website has to convert. As a service-based business, your website has to convince your potential customers that not only can you solve their problems, but that they need to spend a lot of their money with you. More than that, your website should be an investment. An investment that should at some point, generate revenue for you. If you want...

What’s the one thing that can kill a lead or a sale on your website before you even get a chance at that conversion? The critical factor that can undermine your entire marketing strategy and the beautiful website you just designed? It’s a lack of trust. When someone makes a decision to work with you, it’s not the quality of your service, your pricing, or even the visual appeal of your website. It&...

Julia Taylor, founder of GeekPack , took her self-taught love of coding and created a business that works to get more non-traditional people into tech. In this wide-ranging conversation, Julia and I dive into what it means to create a mission-focused company. From starting GeekPack and understanding her bigger purpose, to how she builds a profitable business and keeps her team on board with their...

Creating content can feel like a giant chore. Every day, it’s a new post, a new blog, a new Reel to create. The machines and algorithms just keep telling you to create more, more, more. Worse, the “experts” are out there telling you that you need to create 3 videos per day to stand out, release a podcast, video, and blog weekly, and you have to be in your stories all. of. the. time. Oh, and don’t...

You’re great at what you do and so you thought, “I’m going to go out and do that for myself.” Then the reality of having to get clients settles in and it can seem incredibly hard to grow your business. Can I be honest? I was stuck in that pattern for years. Over 10 years in fact. What finally worked and “clicked” three years ago? It wasn’t anything I did or could learn.

There are so many misconceptions about marketing. Especially for those of us doing our best to bootstrap and grow our business, it can be all too easy to piece together what we find online and try to figure it out on our own. The reality? Strategies that worked for someone else might not work for you. That’s because your business is different and unique to you. But another reason that rarely works...

Not many people can take a blank canvas and create a beautiful website. Believe me, it took me years of observation and practice to start seeing how a design could come together. While I know that not everyone can afford to hire a professional web design agency for their first site or even an update, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have a beautiful website either. If you’re trying to DIY your...

Picking out the colors you want to use in your business can be an incredibly personal experience. You’re choosing how you want people to see your business, how they feel when they come to your website or view your social media, and you’re expressing something about your unique business. Choosing colors, however, can’t just be about what you think looks good. Did you know that the colors you choose...

Do you think that a website can’t do anything for your business? I’m going to tell you a dirty little secret that most agencies won’t tell you - building a website is not a magic fix to your online presence. I often hear from my customers that they built a website and “nothing happened.” Well of course not. This isn’t Field of Dreams. You can’t just build a website and hope that people will come t...

Are your ideal customers spending more than a few seconds looking at your website? I’m talking - don't fill out a single form, schedule a call, or even make it off of your homepage. If you feel like your website does nothing for your business, it’s because you’re not actually telling the people who visit your website how to work with you. Today, we’re going to learn the strategies that keep c...

One of the best sales tools that you can use as a service-based business might surprise you. It’s trust. When your potential customers feel like they can trust you, they’re far more likely to buy from you.  Building trust - or credibility - with your clients is easy when they can see you and shake your hand. You’re a real person! You have a real office they can visit! But what about building trust...

You have a website and you know that you want to get leads from that website. But how do you get people to visit it? You need to optimize it for SEO. Your website can be the best lead-generator for your business when it’s not only built correctly but built to bring in traffic and the right people from Google. If you’re looking to get more clicks, attract high-quality leads, and grow your business,...

Do you have a solid plan to grow your business? Did you create an actual business plan with where you saw your growth going, or did you sort of wing it because you were an expert in the service you’re providing your clients? There’s not really a wrong answer here. I’m not sure I know that many entrepreneurs actually put together a full business plan as you might learn in college. Your business hon...

The great thing about AI and products like ChatGPT is that they can make our lives easier, giving us more time to connect with our audience. The problem? It can actually prevent us from forming those connections up front. In today’s episode, Rachel Allen of Bolt From the Blue Copywriting joins me to talk about how we can use ChatGPT effectively but still maintain that important human connection wi...

Last week I officially hit 3 years in business as Captain Coder! When I started Captain Coder in the middle of a pandemic, I had a pretty strong vision for what I wanted to create. But the reality of running a business is that things are going to change. I’m not sure any business grows exactly how the founders imagined it from the start. Whether you’ve just started on your own entrepreneurial jour...

Are you keeping 25% of your customers from working with you? You might not know it, but that could be exactly what’s happening if you don’t prioritize #DigitalAccessibility. Ensuring everyone can interact with your website and your content online means that you’ll reach your entire audience and won’t exclude people from working with you. In today’s episode of the #CaptainCoderPodcast, we’re revisi...

Being an entrepreneur means that we get to pursue the things that we want and we tell ourselves what to do. The problem with that is we can often forget something else we’d planned on doing before, or we choose the new “shiny” thing to avoid the harder piece in our business that actually needs attention. And of course, sometimes that new shiny thing just seems like a lot more fun to play with than...

Have you been struggling to get your dream client’s attention? I want you to picture this scenario: you’re scaling your service-based business, helping only the people you want to help with their services. Your clients respect you, pay their bills on time, and you’re able to help them because they’re exactly who you should be working with. Sound a bit far-fetched? I get it. When you first start yo...

If you want more leads and sales, then you need to read this. For most service-based businesses, our number one resource of new sales is referrals, but you can’t control how often those come in. What do you do when you need to generate steady leads and sales for your business so you have control over whether or not you can scale? The answer is not posting more often on social media. The truth is t...

You’re probably neglecting this big thing in your business. Website engagement. It’s not all about social media. In fact, social engagement is great, but what really leads to sales is how much your dream client interacts with your website. When your ideal customer is actually spending time on your website, you know that you’re providing something that they actually want to look at. But the average...

The real secret to marketing online isn’t really a secret at all. In fact, it’s what we all know is a best practice but is hard to do so we look for other shortcuts. But nothing can beat creating regular content that provides free and useful information to your audience. It not only helps to attract new clients, but it can also keep your current clients around for longer. And yet, who has time to...

Want to get one of the best ROIs you can get in marketing? I’m talking $42 back for every dollar you spend. The answer might surprise you - it’s email marketing! Having a healthy email list can be the key to growing your business online the easiest way possible. The key to growing your email list? A lead magnet your ideal customer can’t wait to download! Learn how to create a lead magnet that will...

Imagine this scenario: your ideal customer went to their fellow entrepreneurs and friends and asked if anyone knew a “good” accountant, graphic designer, lawyer, social media manager, etc (insert-your-service-based-business-here).  That ideal customer was given your name and three other people that they were told were all excellent. To help them decide whom they might want to work with, they visit...