Grow The Dream Show | Podcast Archive

Perhaps the greatest marketing and branding tool no one wants to refine and use is… yourself. But media and presentation coach Ruth Sherman explains that how you present and express yourself can be the difference between winning clients and being “also-rans.”

Ruth Sherman

Working with celebrities, CEOs, entrepreneurs and business leaders of all kinds, Ruth Sherman helps people hone their presentation skills to prepare for pitches, media appearances, and public speaking opportunities.

Her upcoming book is SPEAKRETS®: The 30 Best, Most Effective, Most Overlooked Marketing And Personal Branding Essentials

Learn more about Ruth and her services at RuthSherman.com.

 

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

We sell horseback riding. (Well we don’t really, of course.) But your business is more than the sum of its parts. That is the lesson the developers of Slack learned while in the pre-launch phase of their product — which has been wildly successful to the point of truly innovative. We deep dive into a pivotal memo they used, in which they were “understanding what people think they want and then translating the value of Slack into their terms.” It’s a lesson for all of us.

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Show Notes

Here’s the memo that started it all: [fair warning: some strong language] We Don’t Sell Saddles Here by Stewart Butterfield (@Stewart), co-Founder & CEO of Slack, not to mention co-Founder of Flickr.

Book we mentioned: Start With Why by Simon Sinek.

Get a Free Audiobook of Start With Why: Visit audibletrial.com/dream & get a free 30-day trial of their service!

For a taste of Simon’s book, check out his Ted Talk: How Great Leaders Inspire Action.

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There’s enormous value to getting earned media — publicity — for businesses that is sometimes overlooked in our social-media heavy world. But companies can reach new customers, brand their business and promote expertise through strong PR — and then leverage it all with social media.

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We need some reviews on iTunes! So… to thank you for taking the time to rate & review our podcast, we’ve put together a fantastic prize package!

* Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help Not Hype, the latest New York Times Bestseller by Jay Baer

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* AND (optional) a 1-hour consultation (phone or Skype) with whichever of us you choose — Rod, Josh, or David. This could have a huge impact on your business!

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It’s that easy! Thanks in advance for your honest feedback!

Enter now through May 31st. The drawing will be streamed live on Twitter (@GTDShow) on June 1st at Noon Eastern.

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Show Notes

We’ll add some notes here!

 

Brew of the Day

Thanks to Josh Muccio, today’s Brew of the Day is a nice, rich Dark Roast from Koffee Kult. Although it was ordered from Amazon, the beans were roasted the day they were shipped to us, which resulted in amazing freshness. The company sources their coffee following fair trade practices, and they also appear to be using organic growers.

This is a very full-bodied cup of coffee, which lots of nice flavor and texture. We’ll be ordering more of it!

The data is undeniable. Visuals will supersize your online footprint and drive potential customers or clients to your web site. We discuss simple and free ways to start using visual content with static pictures, moving to use of slides and then on to video. Bottom line: More visuals will mean more customers.

Your Chance to Win!

We need some reviews on iTunes! So… to thank you for taking the time to rate & review our podcast, we’ve put together a fantastic prize package!

* Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help Not Hype, the latest New York Times Bestseller by Jay Baer

* Another New York Times Bestseller by an upcoming guest who shall not (yet) be named!

* AND (optional) a 1-hour consultation (phone or Skype) with whichever of us you choose — Rod, Josh, or David. This could have a huge impact on your business!

Here’s How To Enter in 2 Easy Steps:

* Leave us a review on iTunes (or on Stitcher)

* Let us know about your review by sending us an email at: show [at] growthedream [dot] com

It’s that easy! Thanks in advance for your honest feedback!

Enter now through May 31st. The drawing will be streamed live on Twitter (@GTDShow) on June 1st at Noon Eastern.

Subscribe

Don’t miss a single episode of the Grow The Dream Show.

   

Show Notes

Tool to create graphics by adding quotes to beautiful images: Pablo by Buffer

Posts with visuals attract 3x more inbound links on average.

Sephora: Our Pinterest followers spend 15x more on Sephora.com than our Facebook followers.

Buffer has added Pinterest support, which allows for scheduling posts and other perks.

Consumers who watch a product video are 85% more likely to purchase that product.

According to Hubspot, Slideshare is their highest converting social channel. This “PowerPoint for the web” allows you to upload presentations to more powerfully educate your audience.

Another tool for creating quote-based graphics: Recite.

Canva is another web-based app, but allows you to build more sophisticated graphics.

You can also watch our 90-minute training video that covers everything about creating graphics for your website or social media without buying Photoshop.

Brew of the Day

Thanks again to David’s nephew, Nathan, for sending in a bag of Comayagua from Left Roasters. This one is delicioso! It has a nice balance, mild acidity, and seemed to roasted just a tad longer than the other varieties we’ve had from Left Roasters.

They’re a great brand to support,

When we sat down with Jay to record this episode, it only took a few minutes for it to become one of our favorites. Jay Baer quite possibly knows more about content marketing than any other living human being, and he drops mind-blowing insights at an unbelievable rate.

This episode will change the way you think about content, will help you see prioritizing your marketing efforts in a whole new light, and will leave you screaming for more.

About Jay Baer

If you’ve been buried under a rock for the last few years, then you may not know that Jay Baer is the bestselling author of books like Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help Not Hype and The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter and More Social.

He’s also the creator of the #1-rated Content Marketing Blog in the World and the founder of Convince & Convert, which consults with companies on digital marketing, content marketing, and social media.

In addition to writing books and industry-leading blog posts, Jay is a celebrated keynote speaker, and produces:

* Jay Today, a frequent 3-minute video with thought-provoking content marketing insights

* the Social Pros Podcast for enterprise social media executives

* and the Convince & Convert Podcast, which features select content from the Convince & Convert blog.

In addition to his books, blog, and podcast, we highly recommend the “Definitive” daily email from Jay, which runs the gamut from social media strategy to content marketing and provides a neat weekly recap of the best of the Convince & Convert blog as well.

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Show Notes

Here are some of the items that Jay mentioned on the show:

* Atomic Reach – score your content (blog posts) to see how well it will serve your persona(s)

* Create your personas with Up Close & Persona – this tools seems to be primarily focused on B2B

 

Google is tweaking their algorithm to “significantly impact” your business site’s ranking based on how mobile friendly it is. This means that your top priority now is to make sure your web site scores well on mobility with Google. Test your site at GrowTheDream.com/mobile.

More on today’s podcast:

* How often should you be blogging for your company?

* What is the value of using #hashtags?

* and much, much more!

In this episode of the Growth The Dream Show, we talk about a powerful strategy you can use to grow your business PLUS we highlight the tools we’re using in our own businesses and with clients. You’ll hear about tools for everything from websites to personal productivity and there’s bound to be a tool YOU can use right away!

Show Notes

Today’s brew of the day is Santa Emilia from Left Roasters, courtesy of David‘s nephew (Thanks, Nathan!). It’s a single origin coffee from El Salvador with a super smooth character and a little hint of nutty flavor.

Since we spent most of this episode talking about tools, here are links to the tools we mentioned! Did we miss your favorite tool? Leave us a note in the comments below!

Social Media Management

Hootsuite

Buffer

 

Graphics

Adobe Creative Cloud

Canva

GIMP

Pablo for Buffer (“quotes” for social media images)

 

Websites

WordPress

Squarespace

 

eCommerce

Shopify

WooCommerce (plugin for WordPress)

 

Communications

Ring Central – VoIP for Business

Grasshopper – Toll-Free Numbers, Inbound Call Handling, Inbound Faxing

Google Voice

Skype

 

Faxes

Genius Scan for iOS and Android

Genius Fax for iOS and Android

 

Team Messaging / Projects

Basecamp

Slack

 

Notes

Notes App for iOS

Simplenote

 

Tasks / To-Dos

Highrise – CRM

Wunderlist

Google Keep

 

Email / Calendar / Contacts

Google Apps for Work

If you think about your marketing as just a line item cost, it’s not working. Effective marketing does not cost money. It makes money. There are real ways to measure your marketing, even old-school marketing.

In this episode we cover a number of strategies you can use to quantify response from all types of marketing efforts. Along the way, we talk about everything from radio to Twitter ads. Plus, in our all-new “marketing school” segment, you’ll get a crash course in writing headlines, which helps improve your responses from social media posts to email subject lines and all sorts of other stuff in between!

Show Notes

How can any small business use the primary social media platforms to grow their business efficiently? We discuss, and sometimes fight about, the best strategies on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. What we agree on: DO IT!

Tools of the Week

* Buffer

* HootSuite Pro – Use the free version & get a free 30-day trial of Hootsuite Pro (the solution David & Rod use)

* ThinkUp – Twitter insights to help you better understand your impact (works on Facebook, too!)

So what happens when the entire marketing basis for your company nearly disappears? Google changes did just that to iheartrepair.com. Josh Muccio grew the company with an investor pitch under the concept, “Broken phones make girls cry.” But when his online business dried up, Josh explains how he shifted strategies to local geographic marketing to continue — and surpass — company growth.

Show Notes

The book to help you systemize your business: The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber.

For serious eCommerce, Josh recommended Shopify.

Website Enhancements we mentioned:

* To measure and improve the speed of your website, use the free Pingdom website speed test.

* For site speed improvements and a free SSL: Cloudflare

* WordPress plugin to redirect old URLs to new ones (and track 404 errors): Redirection

* WordPress plugin to connect your site to numerous free resources from WordPress.com: JetPack

Good example of a “newsjacking” technique (getting in front of traffic):

Have questions? A comment? Sound off below!