Journey to $100 Million: Entrepreneurship & Digital Marketing

In episode 229 of Journey to $100 Million, Kevin shares some exciting news. The sales team at Array Digital has just surpassed our quarterly goal in just two months! Our goal for the quarter was $30K in MRR (monthly recurring revenue) and we have already passed this goal with one more month to go in the quarter.

We would like to give a huge shoutout to Glen, our business development manager, for helping us reach our goal. Glen started with us about 4-5 months and has already hit the half a million mark in ARR (annual recurring revenue). If we are able to continue at this pace, we believe we can attain our $100 million goal, although that is still far out as of right now. Kevin is very pleased to have reached our sales goal, especially being this early in the quarter! We are crushing it with sales right now, and cannot wait to watch our progress and see where our sales are at the end of the quarter.

Do you have sales goals? If not, you are not going to be able to track your progress or meet any expectations. The key is to set up goals and be able to strive towards them in order to make your company as successful as possible. Make sure you not only have goals for your sales, but also for yourself and the activities you are doing such as calls, emails, or meetings. For us at Array Digital, we hit our goals early this quarter, so in the future, we plan to set them higher!

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Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

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Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

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For more information on the show, and to check out past episodes, go to journeyto100million.com!

This podcast references times where there have been problems, either current or in the past. In episode 228 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in as Erik explains why he focuses on problems that have affected our company and how we have recently been winning - a lot!

Erik focuses on these problems because he views them as opportunities to improve. If you can learn from your mistakes, you can incrementally get better until you start winning - something that has recently been happening with us! We have experienced a lot of wins within our KPI dashboard, leads, and contracts.

This glimpse of winning makes all the issues we face and hard work we put in that much more worth it. That winning feeling is something that we strive for each day here at Array Digital. Erik does not find joy in continuously pointing out aspects of our company that need improvement, however, he knows it will lead us to more wins on a regular basis and position us for success in the long run. To emphasize the importance of winning to our company, Erik is considering making it one of our core values. When you are losing, learn why you are losing, determine how to get better and make the changes to win again!

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Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

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Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

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For more information on the show, and to check out past episodes, go to journeyto100million.com!

Recently we brought on a business consultant, named Jeff “Ski” Kinsey. In episode 227 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in to Kevin as he shares how Ski has informed Kevin and Erik about a very impactful concept that has helped Array Digital continue to grow: The Theory of Constraints (TOC).

The Theory of Constraints was first developed by Eli M. Goldratt. This theory is the understanding that there is always going to be at least one weak link (not necessarily an individual) within your company that is holding you back from reaching your full potential. The goal is to focus on those weak links one at a time and look for results. When you find a weak link, put all your energy into that one issue and fix it! After you fix that link that has been holding you back find the next one, and the next one, until all of the issues in your company that are preventing growth - vanish!

As executives, Kevin and Erik find themselves focusing on 20 different issues at once, attempting to fix them all at the same time - and quickly. The reality is, when you are trying to fix a cluster of different issues in a short period of time, your focus is sub-par. The key is to focus on one particular issue, and then move to the next. In doing that, you can spend all your time truly dissecting what is going on in order to fix it effectively while also ensuring it never comes back.

Here at Array Digital, we are tackling our first weakest link as of now. We are going to fix this issue, improve it, and look for the results from our efforts. If we see good results, that means it is time to move on to the next weakest link and keep growing as a company!

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Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

—

Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

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For more information on the show, and to check out past episodes, go to journeyto100million.com!

Since becoming a CEO, Erik has not had someone to oversee his efforts and provide him with feedback. In fact, it has been almost 10 years since Erik has received formal feedback. Now, the feedback he gets is from clients, considering they are his only employers. In episode 226 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in to Erik as he explains how he recently got feedback, not from a client, but an employee here at Array Digital.

In a previous episode, Kevin talked about a situation where Erik responded to a frustrated client that reached out to him via email. He responded in a quick manner and did his best to resolve the situation, however, the overall message and tone was not perceived well by the client.

As a result, Glen, our business development manager, reached out to Erik and let him know how he would’ve handled the situation. He explained that a phone call to respond to these situations would have worked much better, which he learned from past experiences. Erik also realized that he should be careful and considerate when communicating with clients, especially when he may be frustrated by the situation himself.

Erik greatly appreciated Glen’s feedback and learned many important lessons going forward. Feedback from your employees can only help grow as a company, as well as an individual!

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Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

—

Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

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For more information on the show, and to check out past episodes, go to journeyto100million.com!

Have you assigned someone a role to oversee project management? In episode 225 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in as Kevin explains how having a dedicated professional project manager allows you to accomplish more while using fewer resources. This role can be very beneficial to a company as they are able to oversee task assignment, scheduling, and employee efficiency.

Instead of each individual employee managing their schedule, tracking tasks, etc., we have one project manager to do that for everyone. We are very fortunate to have our own project manager, Jamal Anderson, here at Array Digital, as he continues to prove himself to be an asset to the company. Jamal has excelled in this role for many years, and without him, we would have a difficult time keeping up with the fast pace of completing client work and staying organized.

Many smaller companies like ours do not have a project manager. However, we figured that having a project manager would be a better use of resources, as opposed to hiring 4-5 new team members. All in all, our goal at Array Digital is to maximize our profit with a minimal amount of team members. Instead of hiring additional team members when our workload gets to be overwhelming, we choose to keep a small team that is focused and efficient while keeping us competitive in our field.

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Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

—

Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

Previously, we have talked about how we are discontinuing one of our services: hosting only. In episode 224 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in to Erik as he explains how that process went. Hosting only has been a legacy service that we no longer sell to new clients. When this occurs, it sends a red flag that you should discontinue that service.

We had 28 clients using hosting only, and when we discontinued this service in early June, we figured that we would lose those clients. After our business development manager, Glen, reached out to these clients, 2 of them upgraded to support and hosting service, while another even upgraded to more marketing services. We were able to gain more revenue from these upgrades, while also cutting our client count by 25!

You should never assume that your clients will always be content with the services they are being provided. These clients may be looking for a different service, but you have not sat down with them to have that conversation. The key is to continuously look at lower-tier clients, and see if you can upgrade them to a higher-value service. It worked for us, and we are optimistic that it will work again!

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Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

—

Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

In 2017, before we merged to form Array Digital, Kevin made an amazing hire who has proven to be an asset to our team. In episode 223 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in as Kevin shares how vital our marketing manager, Jake Maines, has been to our team. Jake’s role is to oversee our entire marketing department, including social media, SEO, advertising, and website design.

Prior to hiring Jake, our goal was to hire someone who would be able to assist SEO and marketing clients. We are very fortunate to have Jake on our team as he has been essential to the growth of our company. His experience along with his dedication to the company has allowed him to transition from working within a single department to being the head of the entire marketing department.

While Kevin was interviewing this new hire, he did not just focus on Jake’s experience and background, but also his personality and character to see if he would fit in with the culture of the company. Jake exceeded Kevin’s expectations and has been an amazing addition for the team ever since. The moral of the story is, if you want to grow a great company, you have to hire great people!

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Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

—

Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

Have you ever had a problem that stems from a good situation? Recently, we had our best Marketers Anonymous meetup yet! In episode 222 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in to Erik as he explains the situation we have found ourselves in with the growing size of our meetups.

The room that we currently use for our meetups has been perfect in the past with its capacity of 48 people which accommodated the previous amount of attendees. At our most recent Marketers Anonymous meetup, however, we had 60-65 attendees. Although the attendees outsized the room capacity, we were able to improvise. To do this, we had to make-shift tables, bring in high standing chairs to place in the back, and encourage people to stand.

Knowing that we recently stopped supporting our Newport News and Orlando meetups in order to focus our time into the Norfolk meetups, we were thrilled to see this turnout. Due to this growth, we feel that we are ready to make the jump to a 100 person room. We feel that we have proven our value in these meetups by providing useful information that is relative to the marketing community.

When expanding a company, idea, or anything at all, it is important to take small risks at first. Large financial risks, in the beginning, can hurt your company and take years to recover. Instead, you must slowly increase the size of these risks over time. Marketers Anonymous has proven to be very successful and could potentially become a conference one day, however, it is not time to make that jump yet. We must first upgrade to a 100 person room for the meetups, monitor the number of attendees, and keep expanding if needed.

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Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

—

Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

Kevin’s previous company provided services that had a high ranking on Google based on their location. In episode 221 of Journey to $100 Million, listen in to Kevin as he shares how we are now trying to get back on track in Google search results here at Array Digital. This ranking allowed Kevin to acquire more leads than he could even handle, the work never stopped!

Kevin’s previous company did website design and SEO, but when his company merged with Erik’s to form Array Digital, these SEO efforts stopped immediately. At first, Array Digital was focused on software and mobile apps, and was not worried about losing those leads. Today, Array Digital provides website design, SEO, and various other services. As Array Digital expands on these services, Kevin wishes he had the leads from his previous company.

Over the past couple of weeks, we have been focusing on being present in search engine results by starting to rank for specific keyword phrases. We now have a channel in Slack that includes the entire team and is designed to get input on how we can rank for particular keywords. Every day, Kevin checks these rankings to evaluate our performance and see what we could be doing better. This channel is extremely helpful as team members have been writing articles, brainstorming ideas, and optimizing our site to ensure that we are #1 everywhere. We are already starting to acquire leads from these efforts!

What are you doing to rank yourself? Are you providing more content and focusing on keywords? If not, Kevin highly recommends it in order to be more successful.

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Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

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Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

In Erik’s most recent episode, he talked about how sending an invoice to a client means you are effectively extending them credit. We realized that this can pose a big risk to the company, and needed to figure out a way to eliminate this risk and receive payment prior to completing client work. In episode 220 of Journey to $100 Million, Erik discusses how we plan to do this at Array Digital.

In business, you must complete the work, send an invoice, and then wait on payment. The payment is usually in net terms, such as net 30, meaning the client has 30 days to pay the invoice. Understanding that having to wait on receiving this payment can be risky, we decided to have a goal of net 0 for client payments, or requiring that they must pay immediately. To do this, we either need clients to pay by credit card, or ACH (automated clearing house). ACH means that we would extract money from the client’s checking account and be moved into our account in one to two days.

We have been trying to get our existing clients to switch to credit card or ACH, and eventually make these the only options for new clients. If our clients pay by ACH, they get a “discount” for our services. However, we end up charging more for other forms of payment because we want to ensure we are getting our net 0 payments. Our end goal is to have every client paying net 0. By doing this, we eliminate the risk to fund their operations and avoid any credit issues. We just want to do the work we do best and get paid upfront!

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Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

—

Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.