Talking with Kenny Pordon today, and got some really great insights about the sports industry. When he got his start in marketing for the NFL it was a temporary position, but once it was wrapped up they gave him a suggestion. 'You should sign up for this junior marketing program over here, you'd be perfect for it!' And wonder of wonders: they were right. This set him on an interesting path that he's enjoying sprinting down every day. Over the years he's learned what it means to make a fan out of someone. And he's learned the importance of building that fanbase for your whole team, not just a single player. There are some lessons here that can tie back to marketing as a whole, and even into company brand and employee loyalty. This, along with his Elite Marketing Tip have some neat applications that can help you starting today. LinkedIn is a self-proclaimed LinkedIn junkie so find him on there anytime and reach out. Let's jump in.

Got a chance to talk with Kate Adams, Head of Marketing at Burkland Associates. Turns out they have a unique way to approach common financial operations for startups. Rather than hire a team of accountants, CFO and controllers, they offer their services fractionally so their clients can move faster and build great things. Kate's had a lot of experience marketing in the financial sector, and shared a pretty funny story about one of the toughest lessons learned, and how it applied to her future career. It turned into her Elite Marketing Tip. And actually, you get two for one in this episode, so get ready to learn some cool stuff! Find Burkland Associates at burklandassociates.com and on LinkedIn and Twitter. Or find Kate on Twitter, @kateadamsburkland. Kate and I are already chatting so come on in and join us.

One thing about marketing for the sports industry is you can find out really quick what works and what doesn't. It's one of the best environments to experiment and see what marketing tactics reap the greatest benefits. Brandon Gabay of The it Crowd Marketing got his start in that sector, and then left to join a top-notch fractional marketing team. What he's found over the years is that connecting on a deep emotional level is what makes the best impact, and his Elite Marketing Tip dovetails nicely with that principle. If you're looking to bring on a marketing team but can't afford hiring 23 full time employees, The it Crowd might just be for you. Check them out at itcrowdmarketing.com, and reach out to Brandon directly via email, [email protected].

Today's guest started off his career by getting a law degree... and he hated it. Then he started up a company writing papers for students... and loved it. Fast forward a bit, and Jeremy Boudinet got his start in marketing by joining a couple friends in their startup to do content marketing and e-books. Eventually, his approach to getting awesome content up got him a job at Nextiva. He's exactly what he wanted to be when he grew up, just it took a little adjusting to get there. He's found that the key to marketing is the willingness to step out and do some weird things, deviate from the norm and think outside the box when everybody else is trying to conform and do what's worked before. And his Elite Marketing Tip goes right in line with that. If your company needs a great internal communication platform, check out nextiva.com. Or if you need to talk with an awesome marketer, find Jeremy on LinkedIn or on Twitter, @boudinetj. Let's jump into the chat.

Things are really hopping in the Bay Area these days! Matt Schneiderman and I got the chance to talk about what it was like doing content marketing for a tech startup in the area. The challenges he faced go beyond just content marketing itself, or helping tech startups. It's more social. It's long been said that people will never remember what you said, but they'll always remember how you made them feel. So can you content connect with people on an emotional level? Can it resonate with them in a way that will last for weeks, months or even years? There's a way to write like that, and he knows how to do it. Find Matt Schneiderman on LinkedIn as a content writer in the San Francisco Bay Area. Now let's hop into the conversation already in progress.

Today's guest, Gary Phipps technically got his start in marketing back in the military as a recruiter. This was back when the Army started getting into social media and really leveraging it to reach their target audience of folks they could bring into the family. Now that he's a formal marketer in a totally different industry, his learning about the craft has increased dramatically. Working at Tri-National has taught him a lot about how to connect with certain demographics and reach out to them about an exciting career in the trucking industry. Plus, he knows his way around Google analytics, and what makes them able to know exactly what you want to buy, and when. And no you don't have to be scared to talk around your phone. SEO, social media, marketing magic, all of these are topics we cover in today's episode. Find out more about Tri-National at trinat.com, or Gary personally at gary-phipps.com, or his handle garybear86 on all kinds of social media platforms. All right, enough jibba jabba from me, let's get going.

Turns out Daniel Ybarra and I are a couple of Goonies. 80s kids will get that reference. We reminisced about what it was like growing up, and how television was the heartbeat of homes in the US. And it's true. We both remember our families sitting around the TV in the living room watching shows and stuff. Throughout his schooling he was always into film making, production and editing. But when he started at Vizio he found that blending his passion with the mission of a company that cares about entertainment was a perfect fit. We talked about how social media has made it much easier to find a target audience since its whole job is to deliver content to the right people at the right time. And we talked about how marketers can use those platforms to simply see what works and what doesn't. Find out more about Vizio at vizio.com. Now let's see where the conversation goes.

Today's guest didn't start off in marketing. He originally was a music major in college! But his path took him through some challenges that he realized he was fairly close to knowing how to fix. Running around with a band got him in line with opportunities to get into marketing FOR the band. And the rest, as they say, is history. Chris Foust of Specialty Care in Nashville talks about what he's learned over the years, what's changed in marketing since he started, and about the now tremendous power that marketers have, as it relates to the external and internal facing aspects of a company. There are some cool things to learn about internal branding in this episode, along with his elite marketing tip at the end. Find Chris' company at specialtycareus.com, or find him on Twitter, @chrisjamesgtr. Let's jump into the conversation now.

Andrew Maffettone's been marketing for, like, his whole life. As a child he would make up commercials for products around the house, and then later in college got into marketing for the music and hospitality industry. What he's noticed during the pandemic is that e-comerce has had a dramatic uptick. But what he suspects is, it'll still be flying high even after things get back to normal. His general advice for marketers is to make sure not to focus on improving metrics for the sake of improving them, but to focus on the main one: customer satisfaction. However, his specific Elite Marketing Tip has more to do with scalabilty, and making sure you're working in a way that doesn't slow you down, while still offering room for personal and professional improvement. I'm stealing his tip and adding it to my collection. I think you will too. Andrew can be found all over social media under the handle @andrewmaff, or you can find the company at bluetuskr.com. Let's hear Andrew's story now.

Jeremi did one of the craziest things starting up a business right in the middle of COVID. April 2020 he went live with The J Benjamin Group, a company focused on using creative thinking to solve tough challenges for other businesses. When many other advertising and marketing agencies focus on tactics, Jeremi brings strategy. His approach? Focus more on the long term. While this might seem obvious, so many people do the opposite. Social media for example--just because you're on the platform doesn't mean you're going to get conversions. Jeremi can be found on LinkedIn or on his site, thejbenjamingroup.com. His elite marketing tip today is about what to do to get your own mind out of a rut if you're having trouble coming up with a solution. Let's hear what it is now.