Grow The Dream Show | Podcast Archive

If you think your first step must be perfect before you will take it, you will never start a journey. Perfectionism is a death sentence for launching out with a new business or product or marketing plan. But there are ways to over come it. And the simplest, but hardest, is to just get started. We talk about how to overcome this blockage and help you take the first step.

Rod Thomson is out this week, so Josh & David go unrestrained geek on us. Don’t worry, it eventually applies back to growing your business! We’ll talk about influencer marketing, why you should JOIN the disruptors in your industry, and should you invest in a mobile app for your small business?

Brew of the Day

Rioblanco De Herrera from @LeftRoasters (courtesy of David’s nephew, Nathan. Thanks Nate!)

Show Notes

Resources mentioned:

* The Pitch podcast

* Product Hunt

* Marketing Stack

* BuzzSumo

Speaking of Chimpanzees… don’t miss David in the TUNG Brush video featuring Chance the Chimp.

We dig through the digital mailbag and answer listener questions. One of the most interesting is: Should your business have a podcast? They are not for everyone. We discuss how to determine if your business would benefit from podcasting, project managing on Slack, general project manager software and more!

Show Notes

Huge thanks to @SelahCosentino, Jordan Snowden, & @BrandonLaws for writing in!

Project management on Slack:

* Google Calendar

* Basecamp

* Jira

* Giphy (use at the risk of your own productivity!)

 

Wait, create trust by giving away information and pointing potential customers to better options, even competitors?! Yes, that’s what Sales Lion Marcus Sheridan believes and lives… and it has been a resounding success for his business, River Pools and Spas. The pool company, which was built from the back of a truck to a multi-million-dollar per year business, suffered a disastrous fall and near bankruptcy in 2008. Today, the business is bigger and better than ever, thanks in no small part to the 500,000 unique visitors per month, the highest level of traffic for any pool company in the world. Marcus is passionate about teaching all potential customers on the topic, not pitching his, to create immediate trust. One post along these lines may have saved his company.

In this episode, you’ll hear lessons learned—not only from his experience with River Pools and Spas, but also in the years since the dramatic turnaround. Since 2009, Marcus has operated “The Sales Lion,” at first a blog, now a flourishing business that helps other businesses do what he has done.

About Marcus Sheridan

Marcus is a sought-after speaker on all things content marketing, and you can find him on the stage at events like HubSpot’s famous Inbound Conference, Content Marketing World, and The Content Marketing Academy (in the UK).

In 2001, Marcus and some friends launched River Pools and Spas from the back of a pickup truck. He’s shared the legendary multi-million-dollar turnaround story around the world, including in the foreword to Jay Baer’s book Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help, Not Hype.

In addition to speaking and training audiences, Marcus hosts two podcasts, Mad Marketing (solo) and The Hubcast (with George Thomas). He lives in Virginia with his wife and 4 kids.

You won’t want to miss a moment of this fun, educational, and even shocking interview with Marcus!

Learn more about Marcus Sheridan.

Follow Marcus on Twitter.

Show Notes

Tools Marcus mentioned:

Advanced analytics from HubSpot.

Leadlander (a lower-cost alternative)

It’s no longer possible to ignore content marketing for your business. Joe Chernov, VP of Content from content king HubSpot, explains why it’s so valuable and how HubSpot drives such amazing results with it. For instance, did you know that your business is 13 times more likely to generate positive ROI when you blog along with your marketing? Or that marketers that measure ROI are 12 times more likely to increase it? Yup.

About Joe Chernov

After being awarded Content Marketer of the Year by the Content Marketing Institute in 2012, Joe came to HubSpot to head up its content team with the title, VP of Content. A widely recognized content marketing thought leader and speaker, Joe brings a unique perspective to how content creates value for businesses.

Within HubSpot, Joe is responsible for the content team, which includes not only the highly visible blogs (one for marketing, one for sales, and one for agencies), but also the demand generation group, which produces the eBooks, infographics, and presentations that you’ve probably already downloaded at one point or another.

In addition to his work at HubSpot, Joe advises digital marketing startups and VCs, writes for numerous marketing blogs, and can be found on stage presenting at major events. He is also an active volunteer, supporting wildlife conservation causes.

In this episode, Joe gives a rare inside look at how his team continues to crank out such high-value content that drives significant business results for HubSpot, and shares numerous lessons that you can put to work in your business!

Follow Joe Chernov on Twitter.

The struggle: How can I make my company’s content get shared and go viral? New York Times best-selling author Jonah Berger explains how word of mouth is 10 times more effective than advertising, and lets us in on the data-driven keys to making your content, your marketing, and your business take off. And as a bonus: He lets us know about the soon-to-be-released Contagious Index.

Jonah Berger is a marketing professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and author of the recent New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller Contagious: Why Things Catch On.  Dr. Berger has spent over 15 years studying how social influence works and how it drives products and ideas to catch on.  He’s published dozens of articles in top-tier academic journals, consulted for a variety of Fortune 500 companies, and popular outlets like the New York Times and Harvard Business Review often cover his work.

Don’t forget to grab a copy of Contagious: Why Things Catch On, available anywhere books or sold.

You can support the Grow The Dream Show by ordering your copy from Amazon.

This week’s show is brought to you by Audible.

Get a Free Audiobook of Contagious: Why Things Catch On (or the title of your choice!): Visit audibletrial.com/dream & you’ll also get a free 30-day trial of their service!

 

How important is it to let your customers tell you about your new product or customer service? Maybe ask the marketing team behind New Coke? Every business can fall into the trap of presuming to know what their customers want. Why take the chance when you can ask them? We discuss ways to get that valuable feedback and how to prepare for a new product or service launch in a way that lets you know ahead of time whether or not to expect success!

Show Notes

Josh’s new project: The Pitch

 

This week’s show is brought to you by Audible.

Get a Free Audiobook of this title (or the title of your choice!): Visit audibletrial.com/dream & you’ll also get a free 30-day trial of their service!

 

You must know why your customers buy your product or service in order to know how to craft your message to them. Step back, spend some real time to understand what they want to do with the holes, as opposed to the drill. See their desires, as Starbucks saw people wanted a coffee “experience” — not just coffee.

Show Notes

What business are you in?

How you answer this question affects every part of your business… not just your marketing message. But it’s crucial for developing your message.

Here’s the Starbucks analogy we used on the show:

Starbucks roasts coffee beans purchased from growers all over the world and sells them primarily by making drinks out of them in their local retail stores. What business is Starbucks in?

A. Coffee

B. Beverages

C. Legal Addictive Stimulants

D. Entertainment

Hint: While none of these might be “wrong,” some of these answers are more strategic than others!

This week’s show is brought to you by Audible.

Get a Free Audiobook of this title (or the title of your choice!): Visit audibletrial.com/dream & you’ll also get a free 30-day trial of their service!

 

Growing your business rapidly can create a whole set of new problems you may not have imagined before! What are the biggest secrets to turning that growth into long-term success? Our special guest today, Joey Brannon of Axiom Strategic Consulting, talks about the entrepreneurial illness known as Shiny Object Syndrome and explains why saying “No” may be the most important, and overlooked, ability. “Saying no is a skill you need to know as a small business owner to become a large business owner.” Apple is a great example, as it focuses intensely on one new product at a time. But Brannon says the ability to say “No” to the next bright, shiny object is even more important for the small business and startup. This episode is a wealth of great insights for small businesses that want to think strategically.

Joey Brannon

Joey Brannon started Axiom Strategic Consulting in 2005 with a vision to help small, closely held businesses achieve the goals their owners had in mind when they first got started. Along the way many business owners lose sight of the dreams they had on day one. An entrepreneur at heart, Joey understands the struggles, frustrations, joy and accomplishment that come from running a business focused on serving others.

Trained as a CPA, Joey brings a thorough understanding of the numbers and an eye for details to the strategic planning and execution process. You won’t want to miss what he shared with us on this episode!

Follow Joey Brannon on Twitter.

Show Notes

Book we mentioned:

* Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Get a Free Audiobook of this title (or the title of your choice!): Visit audibletrial.com/dream & you’ll also get a free 30-day trial of their service!

 

The heartbeat of business development is The Relationship. These may start digitally or at events or some other way, but developing those with people who may be a step or two ahead of you can be gold. The keys: Ask questions (don’t pontificate); Listen (two ears, one mouth — do the math); and be humble.

Show Notes

Books we mentioned:

* How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie

* The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson

* The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick

Get a Free Audiobook of one of these titles (or the title of your choice!): Visit audibletrial.com/dream & you’ll also get a free 30-day trial of their service!

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Thanks to A Small Orange for sponsoring the Grow The Dream Show.