Journey to $100 Million: Entrepreneurship & Digital Marketing

Erik originally went to school to become a civil engineer. One of his first jobs was as a construction project manager. He worked with an older supervisor Named Jack Waschitz. They were working on renovating bachelor housing for Naval officers, which was essentially like a small hotel. Erik remembers Jack telling him to make sure the crew finished one room 100% before moving onto the next. Erik admits this went in one ear and out the other.

Erik quickly found out why Jack had given him that advice. The crew would move around from room to room as they saw fit, after only having completed 80-90% of the work. Erik lost track of what had been completed and what hadn’t. He found himself with several partially-completed rooms and almost nothing done to completion.

That lesson still resonates with him to this day. It's a story he recently recalled to the team when we found ourselves not quite done with several projects. It’s important to be diligent and finish one project before moving onto the next.

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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!

Erik bought his first Chromebook about five years ago when they were just starting to come out. He ended up giving that Chromebook to our tester at the time, but it wasn't a very high-powered one. He got him another one, and the slower Chromebook stayed at the office. Erik was intrigued by the concept of Chromebooks, and even though he recommended them to others, he wasn't really using them himself.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. Erik's $2,000 MacBook Pro developed an issue and he had to take it into the shop. While he was without his laptop he resorted to using one of those older Chromebooks. It was slow and frustrating to work with, but he wanted to give Chromebooks a fair shot. So, he ended up buying a Google Pixelbook Go and he loves it! It has 16 GB of RAM, it's fast, and it does everything he needs. Almost everything we do is on the web, so there is really no reason to buy a $2,000 laptop with loads of apps that we will never use. The Google Pixelbook Go is where it’s at. Erik gives it a solid two thumbs up!

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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!

Recently, one of Erik's Buddies, “Tats”, asked him how he knows who to hire next. Years ago it was common for Erik to hire anyone that came along that could help him deliver what he had promised. Now there is a bit more of a strategy behind it.

First, we figure out where there is a skills gap. We offer four main services - advertising, SEO, social media, and websites. We know we need specialists in each of these areas. If we don’t have them we look to fill these gaps.

Next, we need to ensure no one is overloaded. If they are, we look for someone to help them to spread the load.

Last, we look for redundancy. It’s never a good idea to only have one person who can do their job in case they leave or something happens. We look to have some overlap as insurance.

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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!

There’s a lot of different marketing strategies but for Kate Gaudry, the interviewee in this episode, she is able to put her name out there so that people know to contact her to speak. As a result, she’s been contacted a lot to speak at many different venues.

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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!

Erik recently spoke to a lawyer named Kate Gaudry, covering all sorts of things Erik has yet to even think about. Kate’s practice is largely focused on companies that are in AI or computational biology, a field that’s really exploding because it significantly improves the efficiency of biology.

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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!

One of the things we do at Array Digital is have each of our supervisors meet with their direct reports every single week. These meetings typically last about 15 minutes maybe longer but it’s a standing meeting on the same day every week. It’s a great time to reconnect with everyone and discuss any issues, tension, and long-term goals.

Recently, Erik had one of these conversations where he found out that everything wasn’t ok with someone. They were able to work through it and figure out how to move forward.

These one on one meetings are an opportunity to speak honestly with no repercussions. Because we create that opportunity, we get this honest feedback that we then have to do something with. You can’t just receive this honest feedback and blow it off. You should quickly come up with a way to address and potentially change it to alleviate the issue at hand.

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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!

One of the arguments Erik has sometimes with other entrepreneurs and even internally at Array Digital is whether someone should do something because someone else offers that service.

Erik recently had a client that came to him, someone that had been a client for months typically paying by ACH who now wanted to pay by check with net 30 terms. We don’t accept net 30 terms. If someone’s going to pay us by check, we give them 7 days. Our billing is the same every single month and there’s nothing for our clients to review.

The client said on the phone that in business it’s customary to give net 30. But we don’t do it that way and we want to be paid up front. You can set your payment terms however works for you and you shouldn’t be pressured to change it because someone else does it that way.

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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!

Years ago Erik worked as a contractor for the military. He worked for a retired Navy Commander who told him the Navy had researched what the biggest problem was in their operations. They looked at everything from ammunition, to training, and found that communication was always the problem.

It's not a big surprise to find out that as human beings we are not great at communicating. With short attention spans and multiple priorities, communication always seems to fall by the wayside.

A client recently let Erik know that he was concerned about the lack of communication on the progress of his project. As a marketing agency we have the technical side down, but communication still seems to be a problem. Erik believes this is the case for most other businesses too. Clients are usually understanding if you are proactive in letting them know that you need extra time to meet a deliverable, but they are less forgiving if they have to reach out to find that out themselves.

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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!

Something we have struggled with over the last couple of years but recently clarified is whether we want salespeople or account executives. There is a distinct difference between both. A salesperson is a hunter. They go out, find the sale, and bring it back. An account executive is a farmer. They get the sale and then tend to it or manage it. An account executive is way more involved with their client after the sale takes place.

After we hired our first real full-time salesperson it took some time for us to decide that what we wanted is salespeople. We want them to make the sale but then let our operations team manage the account. This frees up the salesperson to focus on bringing in new clients so they can grow their commission, and lets the operations team do what they do best.

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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!

Erik recently asked Christopher Hagan about what marketing strategy is working right now for his business. He said the one thing he found that has resonated with businesses is to be value-added. Too many lawyers are lawyer’s lawyers but they can’t help their client structure a deal or make an introduction.

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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!