Journey to $100 Million: Entrepreneurship & Digital Marketing

Erik recently received an email from a Polish author named Marek Zmyslowski. He asked Erik if he would read his business novel and Erik agreed. The book is unlike most business books that Erik reads. He typically reads how-to books and he has a clear objective on what he wants to get out of the book. This book was different. It was much more of a novel, with a detailed storyline that explained how the author got into a particular business and why he made all the decisions that he did.

To summarize the book, the author was offered an opportunity to work with a start-up company to create a hotel booking website for Nigeria. The website is very similar to Trivago, which we have here in the U.S. He took that opportunity and did pretty well, but it was hard work and he faced many challenges. Since the author is Polish, and the project was for a website in Nigeria, there were a lot of international challenges to the point where the Interpol (International Police) got involved. It was full of drama and suspense.

It was an interesting read Erik really enjoyed it. If you're looking for a different type of business book he highly recommends it. It's called “Chasing Black Unicorns” by Marek Zmyslowski. You can find it on Amazon.com.

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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!

There are several industries that are doing very well right now. IT companies and telecommunication companies are super busy these days. Many people are working from home and need extra bandwidth and the infrastructure to be able to do so. Things like telemedicine and telehealth are also keeping telecommunication companies hiring more people as fast as they can. We have a telecommunications client that is doing very well and is having a hard time keeping up with the demand for services.

Other industries like accountants and CPAs are also very busy. With the tax deadline extension, and all the questions surrounding the loans for small businesses, accountants and CPAs are working ‘round the clock.

Having a diverse client base has allowed us to keep working during this time too. So, think about how you can go after clients whose industries are doing well to help your company do well too.

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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!

Believe it or not, Erik loves having meetings but they need to be very focused and short. The shorter, the better. He likes to have them be very specific preferably with an agenda.

One of these meetings is the 8:30 AM management meetings that the 5 managers have every Monday and now Thursday of every week. There’s a very loose agenda and things that have not been closed out or issues that seem to be occurring are generally the topics for discussion. Generally, Erik runs the meetings but he also takes requests from anyone who has other topic suggestions.

Recently, we went through one of our contracts and made it much more specific and detailed. We highly recommend forming a management team, allowing them to make some decisions, and regularly bringing them together for a meeting with an agenda.

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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!

Here are a few reasons we’ve turned down business from a qualified prospect:

1. When a client’s expectations far exceed what we can deliver.

2. If a client can’t agree to a 12-month, we try to negotiate a minimum of a 6-month agreement.

3. If a client wants a discount.

4. If a business wants us to market and advertise for a service or product that they can barely explain themselves, we don’t understand, and it’s hard to define a target market.

We’re in this for the long haul and not the short-term gain. Think about what you should say no to and instead of kicking yourself when a client doesn’t work out, learn from it.

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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!

For a long time we were really focused on having in-person meetings. When it came to pitching to a new client or onboarding them, we would spend a lot of time planning in-person meetings with them. Now that we are a couple of months into the pandemic, and meeting people face-to-face is not possible, we are starting to rethink the idea of in-person meetings. Granted, it's usually better when you can get in front of someone, especially when you are trying to sell them on your services. However, if there's one thing this pandemic has taught us, it's that we can sell without it.

We have been fortunate in being able to continue to sell to new clients by moving all of our meetings to video meetings, using mostly Google Hangouts. There are several platforms for conducting video meetings but Google Hangouts is what we use because it comes included in G Suite. It's been working out pretty nicely and it's really opened our eyes to new opportunities.

If we can sell to local businesses without ever meeting face-to-face, then why can't we do that with businesses across the country? The answer is we can. These last couple of months have shown us that it is more possible than we thought before.

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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!

When selling to new clients we always start with one important step: The 15-minute call. The 15-minute call is our way to feel out a potential client without investing too much of our time or wasting there's in case we're not a fit. During this call we try to accomplish a couple of things. We try to find out if they are looking to grow, whether they have a budget for our type of services, and how long they've been in business. We have found our ideal clients have been in business three to five years, they have a good handle on their finances, and they are looking to grow their business. They may or may not have a budget in mind, and that’s fine.

If we find they are a fit after the call then we will move onto the next step, the digital marketing review. This takes us a few hours since we go through their current marketing tactics to come up with a customized plan on how we can help them. If we find they are not a fit we will still offer suggestions on what they can do, and sometimes we refer them to others. The point is for them to leave that 15-minute call better equipped than before they started it.

Think about having 15-minute calls for potential new clients. It’s a great way to find out more about each other without committing too much time until you’re ready

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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!

Core values are super important to an organization. At Array Digital we have a set of core values that we live by. These core values have changed over time, but the general ideas have remained the same. We hire, fire, promote, and give recognition to our employees based on our core values. Currently they are: honesty, quality, urgency, winning, and passion.

When we are getting ready to hire someone new we look at how these qualities are demonstrated by the new hire. If we don't feel they possess all of these qualities they don't pass on to the next round. If they do end up getting hired, they typically don't last very long once it becomes apparent they don't operate by these values.

If you don't have a set of core values for your company you should really think about creating them. They should be values that you as the founder or owner-operator come up with yourself. This is not something you want to hire out. You want to make sure the values are ones that are important to you, and will be demonstrated by everything you and your team do.

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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!

We recently lost about $30,000 a month in revenue. When the pandemic hit, and businesses were forced to shut down, we had a few clients cancel our services temporarily while others cancelled permanently. Right away our biggest client called us to tell us that they would have to stop advertising with us for the time being. It was a huge hit to our monthly revenue but we managed to pull through. Thankfully we have been able to bring on new clients in the last several weeks that have helped to replace the revenue we've lost.

One thing we've learned is to have a diverse client base. We have clients in several different industries and that has helped. Some industries are doing better than others and we are now focusing on bringing on more of those clients. We had somewhat planned for a recession in the future, but we couldn't have foreseen what we are going through now, with clients going out of business or being forced to shut down almost overnight. We were in a good position in the sense that we had some money set aside, and we had very little debt. Our diverse client base helped to stabilize us during this time.

Think about how you can diversify your client base and what you can do to pivot and adapt during these times.

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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!

As part of the coronavirus response from the federal government, they passed an act which has appropriation for small businesses funding upwards of 350 billion dollars. The program is called Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP for short. If you own a business you’ve probably heard of this plan or even tried to apply. It’s a way to keep employees employed so the whole system doesn’t crumble.

Erik talks about his initial confusion with the program and the importance of having a relationship with your accountant, banker, or financial advisor during these times. Your network is extremely important to foster for times like these. That way when something happens overnight, you can lean into those relationships to your benefit!

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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 is a huge proponent of digital media… so what he talks about in this episode is something none of us expected. He subscribed to a real life, *actual* newspaper. Although he doesn’t watch the news much and feels it can be biased on either side of the aisle, he wanted to feel prepared for the next coronavirus.

Usually he’d depend on word of mouth to know what’s the most important in the world, but staying in touch can help put him ahead of the curve, especially in business. Thus he subscribed to the Wall Street Journal, and sits with the physical paper (yes, you read that right) for about an hour each day.

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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!