More than a Few Words

If you have been around the  business community as long as I have, or maybe even half as long you know there are cycles. There are ups and there are downs.  They way to survive the downs is to be prepared. In this conversation, frequent guest Matt Nettleton, shares tips to build a process to recession proof your business. He describes three things you need to have in place as we head into what may...

There is this wonderful song written by Peter Allen in the 1970 s.  Everything old is New Again. In a way that song sums up where marketers are these days. When that song was written fifty years ago, television advertising ruled. Businesses used the platform to build awareness by reaching a wide audience with little concern about demographics. It didn't matter who saw your message as long as you g...

You spend all of your resources trying to drive people to your website. But what do they do when they get there? Well if you goal is to generate leads and build your email list that's where a great landing page comes in.    Co-hosts of the System to Thrive Podcast, Jennie Wright and Alyson Lex say  your page has to grab their attention right away and that's a combination of how the page looks and...

One of my all-time favorite movies is The Sound of Music. While I love most of the songs, the scene where Maria teaches the children to sing, is definitely on top of my list. say. She explains, when you read you begin with ABC, when you sing you begin with Do Rei Mi. She breaks down all of singing into those three simple notes. It occurred to me while I was watching the rerun the other night that...

Scott Murray thinks today's marketers have to stop selling, promoting and clinging to outdated strategies and tactics.  Instead they need to create content to spark engagement,  conversation and inspiration from their audience.    As we've moved from print to digital, control has shifted from the marketer to the consumer.  They decide when they will stop and look at your content and when they will...

How well is your business performing?  Key Performance Indicators help you answer that question.  A KPI is  a quantifiable measure of performance over time for a specific objective. KPIs provide targets to shoot for, milestones to gauge progress, and insights to help you make better decisions. A few things to keep in mind as you establish your KPI’s Directly tied to your objective. There are many...

If you're like most business owners you've set lots of goals and in your life and you've never fulfilled them. It not be the goal, but because your decision making process that is creating the failures. Debra Sunderland explains we have three decision centers the head, heart and gut.  To often we let the head make the plans.  The problem is our brain, in an attempt to protect us, anticipates risk...

When you started your business you probably assumed that sooner or later you would get around to building a life to go with it.  According to guest Nicole Bandes, that is not necessarily the best way to approach things. She believes you can actually build a successful business around your amazing life. The trick is to stop defining success based on how others define it and focus on what is importa...

----more----Every woman has that little black dress in her wardrobe. Classic in design it is not too trendy and not too stodgy.  It is incredibly versatile. With the right accessories, jackets, scarves or cool shoes it is perfect for every occasion, year in and year out.  And every smart marketer knows that email is their little black dress. It goes well with all of the other elements in your mark...

So you think you've got distractions and can't start a business. Well my guest, Renee Harris has nine children and still found a way to build a six-figure business.  How did she balance the demands of a family and the demands of running a business? Renee explains. " We didn't start with 9 kids when we started a business and just like when you have kids normally you don't get them all at once and n...

Social media and content marketing should be fun.  If you are not feeling the fun in the content you are creating then your audience is probably bored, and so are you.   But it doesn't have to be that way.  Guest Elizabeth Ruth suggests when you start with a clear brand voice it is easier to create content which entertains and is memorable enough to help you sell products.  About Elizabeth Ruth. ...

Facebook is on a mission to take the social out of social media.  They've announced changes to their algorithm that you're already seeing. They're prioritizing ads and video from complete strangers over the updates from friends and family members. Those updates are going to be buried somewhere and you're really going to have to look for them. As a user, this is incredibly frustrating. And as a bus...

These days business is built on relationships. So when you are in a networking situation, guest Patty Farmer suggests you remember to focus on the people and the profits will follow.  The relationships  we build are the currency in today's business environment. So think of your business like an ATM machine.  Are you making more deposits or more withdrawals? This is a return appearance for Patty. ...

These days, it seems everyone is talking about working remote. with advances in technology, you can work anywhere in the country or anywhere in the world. As a business owner, managing a remote, international team has some similarities to managing other teams and a few unique challenges. This week, Matt Levenhagen joins us for a conversation about running an international team.   About Matt For mo...

I know the economy is rocky. Yes, things have been bumpy for the last three years. But the truth is, this isn't the first time it's happened, and it will be the last. If you want your business to still be around when things finally settle down, here are a few things you should do. Use this time to clean up your processes. Get efficient. With tight labor markets and rising salary, stop wasting time...

When it comes to finding your life's love or passion is there really only one? Maybe you think that's a strange introduction for a marketing conversation. But it's not.  Just as finding that one true love is important to your personally, it is also true for you as an entrepreneur.  There is happiness and profit when you commit to your one true passion.   Guest Jennifer Crawford  says  there is lot...

Sometimes when people write copy they forget they're not just writing for SEO.  They need to keep in mind they are writing to attract the attention of real people who have  specific reasons for reading the information  According to our guest, Rai Hyde Cornell, Google's not the one clicking the buy now or book a call button. They are not the ones making the decision. So, why are you going to priori...

What is the right price for your product or service? Most small business owners struggle with this question, because they confuse the cost of producing the product with the value it brings to the customer. When it comes to establishing a price for your goods or services, the value of your product has absolutely nothing to do with production cost. The value is based on how much you help clients sav...

If you're a little bit of a sci-fi nerd. The idea that the robots are coming can be a little bit terrifying. But if you're a marketer in today's world the advent of Ai is an exciting opportunity.    Guest Thomas Helfrich agrees some of the early AI content wasn't great it has gotten much better. It's doing a great job for small businesses looking to produce short marketing copy titles and headline...

Do you feel overwhelmed by social media if you do you're not alone but I've got some good news for you because there are things you can do to manage the chaos and make the time you're spending on social media productive.  Our guest, Andrea Jones explains one of the challenges with social media is that it's a mixture of our business and our personal life.  one of the tricks is to identify why you'r...

One of the things I love about living in Indiana is the color of the seasons. There are the bright pastels of spring, the rich greens of summer, and the bright orange and yellow of fall. The exception is winter. The dreary days of winter seem colorless and bland compared to the vibrancy of colors throughout the rest of the year. That’s why I love evergreen trees. They bring spots of color to my vi...

When it comes to creating content, the age old question seems to be " What do you write about? The biggest challenge of creating content is staring at that blank sheet of paper. But according to guest Kathleen Celmins, it doesn't have to be. The trick is to stop creating content and start telling stories with your clients, not you as the hero.   In the "story" focus on their transformation, how th...

People tell me they're they don't think they're creative. But that's not true. Everyone is creative. We just express it differently. And you need that creativity to solve the business and personal challenges in your life.  In this episode, our guest Fiona Valentine explains how simple it can be to unlock your creativity by  drawing just a few minutes every day.  Starting with a structure approach...

What do you want people to say about you when you're not in the room. What do you want them to tell people. who are looking for someone who does what you do? All of those comments add up to your personal brand. Now a lot of business owners are under the misconception that somehow they control their brand. But they don't. Your brand is something that exists in the mind of your customers.  All you c...

You think you know everything about sales. You've heard all the presentations and everybody talks about pain and objections. Well, my guest Chandler Walker thinks that might be the wrong way to approach a sales.  He believes the goal isn't just to stab at a prospect to find the pain.  Instead, when you become a cognitive listener you are able to identify the pain and understand where the pain exis...