Ask an Expert by Propelo

Rick Gilbert, the founder of a popular lifestyle apparel company in Portland, Oregon, called Grafletics, shares clever ways he’s adapted his retail and eCommerce business during the pandemic. Even though revenues are off 50% they’re actually looking to invest in a larger retail location.

Bill Lyons, Founder and CEO of Griffin Funding, a mortgage company that has excelled by staying focused on a niche market, Veteran Funding, which earned them the fastest-growing company in San Diego. He shares insights on how you hire for culture, talks about market trends, and has actionable business insights.

Nick Middleton runs an agency that develops marketing campaigns for summer camps, a sector that has been hit especially hard these past few months. He shares several different ways that camps are getting creative and innovative to pivot in the face of cancelations or changing restrictions. He also shares interesting marketing opportunities including Facebook eCommerce platforms and FREE AdWord funds for non-profit organizations.

Looking at an educational system that has missing teachers, and even textbooks, today’s Ask an Expert guest developed a virtual learning platform over 10 years ago to help give education to kids in need. Evan Erdberg is the President and Founder of Proximity Learning and has created a video-based educational platform that pairs remote teachers to students and classrooms in need across the country.

Barrett Ersek, Founder and CEO at Holganix started his first multi-million dollar business at age 16 thanks in large part to his grandfather who had him do book reports on sales and business books. Two successful exits later he’s on his third business where he’s revolutionizing the lawncare, and all things that grow from the soil, with a positive benefit on our environment.

Rohit Talwar, Founder and CEO of Fast Future, talks about how we’re in a one-time opportunity to rehearse how we want our future to be. He also says that now is a time to get back to basics, to start really actively listening, to focus on training and learning, and surround yourself with people who will encourage and challenge you and your ideas.

Samuel Monnie is an acclaimed speaker, author, and consultant focused on Marketing Transformation, and also co-hosts the “Across the Pond: Marketing Transformed” podcast. Today he talks about business responsibilities in the current societal climate focused on racial inequalities. He highlights some companies that have historically been focused on equality, talks about how customers are demanding change from their brands, and explains the importance of being proactive vs. reactive.

After navigating the last recession, today’s Ask an Expert guest Richard Davis, President of a full-service agency, concentrated his efforts on developing a crowdsourcing platform to connect talented writers across the world with companies in need of a slogan. Richard also explains why businesses need to make sure they continue to be aggressive with their marketing, and which channel they should look at right now.

Howard Behar, former President and Boardmember of Starbucks, joined the company when there were just 28 stores, and by the time retired there were over 15,000. Howard shares the most important thing for their quick growth. Quick hint, it’s not about the coffee (which just happens to be the title of a popular book he wrote, and it’s something that you should be focused on with your business today.

Dave Kurlan, who started out as a musician, realized at an early age his real talents were in sales and has been running a sales training firm working with SMB’s to Fortune 500 companies. In this Ask an Expert segment Dave shares cold calling strategies, sales hiring tips (hint: don’t trust your gut), pivot strategies, and how to leverage video for selling in today and future environments.

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