FIR Podcast Network

Build powerful and profitable networks through successful business networking strategies. This episode features #ThoughtLeader and #Expert Beth Bridges (http://aha.pub/BethBridges), owner and founder of eBridge Marketing, keynote speaker, trainer, and networking motivator. She is also an Amazon bestselling author.

Beth conducts business networking speaking and coaching for individuals and organizations. She helps them build a powerful and profitable business network. Beth is dedicated to helping her clients leverage their own unique personal psychology and skillsets to be more confident and more successful through networking.

To learn more about Beth Bridges, go to http://aha.pub/BethBridges. To get in touch with her, visit https://thenetworkingmotivator.com/.

Here are a couple of AHAmessages from this episode:

* The pain point of many individuals and orgs is that they rely too much on #BusinessNetworking to build good connections, and get frustrated with the results. https://thenetworkingmotivator.com/ @BethBridges

* #BusinessNetworking is essential for individuals and orgs, as it helps them build good connections with the right people and their businesses. http://aha.pub/BethBridges

* Are you working with an expert who knows about #BusinessNetworking? Knowledge about business networking can give a person the expertise to help individuals and orgs grow their network and their businesses. http://aha.pub/BethBridges

* #BusinessNetworking can help individuals and orgs leverage their own unique personal psychology and skillsets to be more confident and more successful. https://thenetworkingmotivator.com/ @BethBridges

* Doing #BusinessNetworking can give someone the credibility to help individuals and orgs engage with people and become successful networkers. Are you getting help from someone who knows business networking? http://aha.pub/BethBridges

To learn more about Thought Leadership and how it can help you be successful, subscribe to the channel: http://youtube.com/user/thoughtleaderlife.

Lead with pragmatic empathy to add value to people and increase productivity. This episode features #ThoughtLeader and #Expert Marcus Aurelius Anderson (http://aha.pub/MarcusAureliusAnderson), a best-selling author, professional keynote and TEDx speaker, mindset coach to leaders, CEOs, and entrepreneurs, and host of the number-one New and Noteworthy iTunes podcast, “Conscious Millionaire Epic Achiever.”

Marcus teaches leaders how to make people actually feel that they care about them as they accomplish great exploits in their careers and life. He trains executives and entrepreneurs to uncover their personal outlook about success, both professionally and personally.

To learn more about Marcus Aurelius Anderson, go to http://aha.pub/MarcusAureliusAnderson. To get in touch with him, visit http://www.marcusaureliusanderson.com.

Here are a couple of AHAmessages from this episode:

* The pain point of many CEOs and top decision makers is not knowing how to lead their people with #PragmaticEmpathy to add value and increase productivity. http://aha.pub/MarcusAureliusAnderson

* Many CEOs and decision makers can benefit from leading with #PragmaticEmpathy, wherein both the productivity and morale of people can level up and work together efficiently. How do you lead your people? http://aha.pub/MarcusAureliusAnderson

* Many CEOs and decision makers sometimes aren’t sure how to use their influence and leadership. Consider working with an expert who can help you lead your people better. #PragmaticEmpathy http://www.marcusaureliusanderson.com @the1realmarcus

* CEOs and decision makers who make a lasting impact on others can experience lifelong return on internal fulfillment. What steps are you taking that can build loyalty with your people that goes beyond just a paycheck? http://aha.pub/MarcusAureliusAnderson

* Is there a disconnect between what you think is a priority compared to other people in your company? #PragmaticEmpathy can help examine the intention and the whys of your leadership. http://www.marcusaureliusanderson.com @the1realmarcus

To learn more about Thought Leadership and how it can help you be successful, subscribe to the channel: http://youtube.com/user/thoughtleaderlife.

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We all know the economy has its ups and downs.

And when times are good, many of us tend to forget that.

But if you were an entrepreneur or business owner in 2008 and 2009, you know how scary the last recession turned out to be.

And even though some economists predicted it would happen, many of us thought we could continue to ride the wave of growth.

Boy, were we wrong!

Even if I had understood how much the recession would affect my business, I don’t think I would have been prepared for the near total destruction it had on so many of us.

Perhaps that’s why everyone is being so cautious right now—it’s close enough in our rear-view mirrors that we know what to expect.

Knowing it’s coming can help.

And even if the downturn doesn’t happen for a year or two, it’s best to be prepared.

Communications as an Early Warning Recession Sign

Communication tends to be an early indicator of economic changes and I’m seeing some of the same trends we saw in 2007 and 2008, such as:

* Clients have begun to take marketing and communications in-house

* Retainers are drying up in favor of projects

* Clients won’t negotiate a budget increase for next year

* Prospects are slower to make decisions

In my work with agency owners, they’ve said this entire year has been like that.

It could very well that people are being cautious, but we definitely continue to see—for lack of a better term—a  tightening of the belts.

We’re doing it in my business, too.

When times are good, we all tend to get comfortable and perhaps spend money on things we don’t really need.

When we anticipate a down economy, we all retreat.

It’s probably the opposite of what we should do, but human nature is very strong.

The Time to Prepare for a Recession is Now

If we are indeed headed into another recession, Forbes offers

Embrace your inner misfit with continuous learning in order to thrive and succeed in entrepreneurship and in life. This episode features #ThoughtLeader and #Expert Dave Lukas (http://aha.pub/DaveLukas), an entrepreneur, author, investor, and the current vice president and CSO of Grasp Technologies, Inc.

He is the founder and host of “Misfit Entrepreneur,” a weekly podcast giving insights from top entrepreneurs all over the world about their non-traditional methods for achieving success, which Dave uniquely calls their “Inner Misfit,” or the Misfit side. His other specialties are in business leadership, client relations, strategic planning, and project management.

To learn more about Dave Lukas, go to http://aha.pub/DaveLukas. To get in touch with him, visit http://www.misfitentrepreneur.com/.

Here are a couple of AHAmessages from this episode:

* The pain point of many entrepreneurs today is not knowing how to deal with the numerous challenges they face on a daily basis that are unique and different for every entrepreneur. #MisfitGenius http://aha.pub/DaveLukas

* Many entrepreneurs can benefit from doing things in unorthodox ways to experience breakthroughs in career and life. How relentless are you in your pursuit of knowledge to discover who you are? http://misfitentrepreneur.com @PodcastMisfit

* Entrepreneurs can learn much from digging into what works and what doesn’t and how you can use these experiences to hustle in life. How do you stay on top of your game? #MisfitGenius http://aha.pub/DaveLukas

* What trials and tribulations have you been through that you can look back on and say you’ve succeeded? Have a winning mindset and put your #MisfitGenius to use! http://misfitentrepreneur.com @PodcastMisfit

* The day you stop learning can cause you to stop growing. Are you willing to endure the long game to be successful in business and in life? Continue learning to grow! #MisfitGenius http://aha.pub/DaveLukas

To learn more about Thought Leadership and how it can help you be successful, subscribe to the channel: http://youtube.com/user/thoughtleaderlife.

Both Paul and David have run and participated in various webinars and online meetings over the years. For this podcast episode, we share some of their best practices. There are several things you can do to have great meetings. First, is preparing your speakers and in planning for the presentation. Do you have the right kind of slide deck? With our in-person speaking gigs, we try to minimize the text on our slides and provide for more of an experience and set the mood. For a webinar where you don’t necessary see your audience, your slides are more of your speaking notes, so your audience can take away your thoughts and remember your major points.

David produces a monthly webinar for the Red Cross that has a dozen speakers and an audience of several hundred. To pull this off with minimal technical issues, he and his team have put together a lengthy document that recommends how speakers connect (watch for poor Wi-Fi and don’t use speakerphones) and describes the various roles that different people play during the conference call (master of ceremonies, moderator, time keeper, slide wrangler, presenter recruiter, chat and notes helpers). We both suggest using a common slide deck for all speakers, which means getting the slides in order prior to the meeting. Also, with more than a couple of presenters you should test your speakers’ audio connections too; both of us have had more problems with wonky audio than video. And settle on a protocol for whether or not to show your face when the meeting starts (and check to see if you are appropriately dressed).

Both of us feel you should always start your meetings promptly: you don’t want to be wasting time waiting for stragglers. We both don’t particularly like Skype for Business, although “regular” Skype is fine (most times) and we have also used GoToMeeting and Zoom, too.

Here is an example of a recent speech David gave to an audience of local government IT managers. He also has lots of other tips on how to do more than meetings and improve team collaboration here.

Good luck with running your own online meetings, and please share your own tips and best practices as comments. And enjoy the video below.

Steven Spielberg is one of the most influential personalities in the history of cinema, and nearly twenty years ago he left theater goers around the country wondering ‘could that ever happen?’ His box office hit A.I. Artificial Intelligence was just released and the idea that machines could take over the world seemed like a far-fetched, crazy idea at the time.

But, here we are today embarking on a journey where AI and machine learning are pinnacle elements of nearly every organization as we feed our desires to learn more about data. Of course, AI today isn’t the way Spielberg portrayed it in his film, but the premise of introducing robots to humans is very much alive and growing.

AI is a vast concept, but for marketers, we focus on two main areas: text analytics and machine learning. Text analytics is understanding the natural language and what message it conveys to an audience. Machine learning is using that data to do our jobs more effectively and efficiently. When you can marry those two elements together, it results in truly having the right message in the conversion path at the right time (and backed by data, too).

To help us all understand how this all plays out for marketers, we’re speaking with Steve Zakur, CEO of the digital marketing technology company SoloSegment. His company helps others understand their site search patterns to develop a deep portfolio of quality content. He and his team help us all understand the site search experience and improve the depth of relevant content through artificial intelligence and machine learning. In turn, it helps marketers be better marketers with insight into correlations they may have never previously considered.

In this episode of AMP Up Your Digital Marketing, you’ll learn from Steve:

* Exactly what is meant by the term ‘AI’ in relation to digital marketers.

* How artificial intelligence coupled with machine learning can be more insightful than a human when understanding the customer journey on your website.

* What it takes from AI to improve the flow and progression of the visitor journey through your website.

* Why it makes sense for you to implement technology that addresses a very specific pain point of your domain expertise as part of your own growth path for your company.

Using AI and machine learning to power your marketing efforts and website may not sound as adventurous at the SciFi flick, but it will leave a valuable impression on the visitors to your site. Take a listen and learn how it will help improve your website visitor flow and your understanding of what story your data is trying to tell you.

Steve’s Bio: Steve is the CEO of SoloSegment, a digital marketing technology company that helps to better connect customers and prospects with the content they need to convert. To reach Steve you can find him at SoloSegment.com as well as at [email protected].

Want to appear on AMP Up Your Digital Marketing? Contact Us and let us know how our listeners can benefit from hearing your message.

Create a stronger workforce with methodologies that can produce long-term results. This episode features #ThoughtLeader and #Expert John Ballis (http://aha.pub/JohnBallis), an operational excellence management professional, CEO, and founder of Lean Your Way, LLC.

John develops leaders, builds deep technical expertise to implement process improvements and change management yielding ROI results, and specializes in coaching and mentoring to foster team engagement and customer collaboration. He helps clients understand corporate culture, motivate cross-functional teams, and expertly drive workflow processes to advance operational excellence that builds sustainability.

To learn more about John Ballis, go to http://aha.pub/JohnBallis. To get in touch with him, visit http://leanyourway.com/ and http://johnballis.net/.

Here are a couple of AHAmessages from this episode:

* The pain point of many businesses is maintaining a continuous improvement program while improving cash flow. #StrongerWorkforce http://aha.pub/JohnBallis

* Do you want long-term success for your business? Consider working with an expert who can help your employees understand that their performance is not only for your business but also for their own advancement. #StrongerWorkforce http://aha.pub/JohnBallis

* Is your organization focusing on complex operational processes rather than value-adding activities that are cost-effective? Consider working with an expert to help boost efficiency in your operations. #StrongerWorkforce http://leanyourway.com/

* There are methodologies that can generate profitable growth and help make workflow processes smarter. What methodology are you using to grow your company? #StrongerWorkforce http://aha.pub/JohnBallis

* Having a continuous improvement strategy in your business can help standardize processes. How are you transferring knowledge to employees with new skill sets to ensure sustainability? #StrongerWorkforce http://leanyourway.com/

To learn more about Thought Leadership and how it can help you be successful, subscribe to the channel: http://youtube.com/user/thoughtleaderlife.

Why do PR and advertising agencies feel the need to look down their noses at each other? Why can’t everyone just get along?

That’s the discussion that Chip and Gini have after an article appeared in AdWeek with the provocative title “PR Agencies Invade Adland.”

As the creator of the PESO model that calls for the integration of all forms of media, Gini has some especially strong feelings on the subject. The reality is that the lines between all types of agencies have blurred. It’s now more of a question of an agency’s primary focus, but there is an increasing need to have some degree of fluency in a range of communications disciplines at any type of agency.

RESOURCES

* PR Agencies Invade Adland

* The PESO Model

[read the transcript]

Grow your business while generating more profit through success strategies. This episode features #ThoughtLeader and #Expert, Vicki Suiter (http://aha.pub/VickiSuiter), Owner at Suiter Business Builders, Board member at North Bay NARI, business consultant and coach,  author and national speaker.

Vicki conducts business consultation and coaching for contractors and interior designers. She helps them develop strategies for success in order for them to increase their business and generate more income. Vicki is passionate about helping her clients to establish a great business foundation, structure and systems.

To learn more about Vicki Suiter, go to http://aha.pub/VickiSuiter. To get in touch with her, visit https://suiterbusinessbuilders.com/.

Here are a few AHA messages from this episode:

* The pain point of many contractors and interior designers is that they struggle to generate profit and grow their businesses. #SuccessStrategies https://suiterbusinessbuilders.com/ @VickiSuiter

* #SuccessStrategies is a great help for contractors and interior designers so that they can generate more income and build #ThrivingBusinesses. http://aha.pub/VickiSuiter

* Are you working with an expert who knows about #SuccessStrategies? Knowledge about success strategies can give a person the expertise to help contractors and interior designers to generate more profit. http://aha.pub/VickiSuiter

* #SuccessStrategies can help contractors and interior designers create a culture with ownership and accountability as the foundational principles with which they operate. https://suiterbusinessbuilders.com/ @VickiSuiter

* Doing #SuccessStrategies can give someone the credibility to help contractors and interior designers to develop effective strategies for growing their businesses. Are you getting help from someone who is proficient in success strategies? http://aha.pub/VickiSuiter

To learn more about Thought Leadership and how it can help you be successful, subscribe to the channel: http://youtube.com/user/thoughtleaderlife.

Scope creep and over-servicing clients erodes profitability and many — if not most — agencies. Keeping work within the agreed parameters will not only make projects better, it will ensure that they contribute to the financial health of the business.

As founder of The Digital Project Manager, Ben Aston knows all about successful agency project management. He joins Chip to discuss techniques to avoid scope creep — starting even before a prospect becomes a client.

RESOURCES

* The Digital Project Manager

[read the transcript]