Journey to $100 Million: Entrepreneurship & Digital Marketing

We are living The Zoom Life…

With offices being shut down all across the country and the world more and more businesses are turning to video conferencing like Zoom and Google Hangouts. I'm sure by now you have been a part of at least a few video conferences. It's something we are very familiar with here at Array Digital as we have used Google Hangouts daily for at least the last three years.

Every morning we have a daily huddle with the whole team. Four of them work remotely so we always use Google Hangouts. Now that our clients and prospects are also working from home we are using it more and we're even helping them set it up in some cases. Between daily huddles, monthly client check-ins, sales presentations, and prospect meetings, we are on video all the time now. We even had a team virtual happy hour one Friday afternoon, and we all really enjoyed it.

If you're not living The Zoom Life think about how you can start using video. We believe it's going to be the new norm. Video isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

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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 is a quick status update about our business during the Coronavirus crisis…

We are a few weeks into this pandemic and as of now we are doing fine. The things we have learned over the years, processes we have put in place, and the things we preach have all helped put us in a position to be able to handle this. Things like the Profit First method for finances and not niching have helped us. Sure, we have lost clients and a considerable amount of revenue but we were doing fine from a cash standpoint before this so we are okay now too. Some of our clients have cancelled, others have put advertising on pause, but a few of our clients are doing well themselves and some are busier than before. Not being contained to only serving one type of client has definitely helped us during this time.

We went into this not having any debt or loans, but we do have a line of credit we can use if we need to. We have applied for the Payroll Protection Program from the SBA and we expect that to help soon. We are also still closing new deals. We have signed about six new deals in the last few weeks. We are still actively seeking new deals.

It's important to keep looking for new deals. Some industries aren't doing well but others are thriving. Now is the time to seek those out. You may have to change what you're doing a little bit, you may have to change your mindset and make some concessions for new clients, but it can be done.

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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!

At the time of this recording we are in the midst of the Coronavirus crisis. Like many other businesses we have made the decision to shut down the office and work from home. This was a fairly easy transition for us as many of the productivity tools that we use are cloud-based, and working remotely is something that we do from time to time anyway. If working from home is new to you we have some recommendations for tools to use:

G Suite

- Use for calendars, email, spreadsheets, documents, slide presentations, and cloud storage

- Similar to Microsoft Office tools

- Inexpensive and easy to use

- All cloud based so you can access from any kind of computer or smartphone as long as you have an internet connection

Asana

- Cloud based task manager

- Multiple ways to use

- Robust task tracking

Slack

- Online messaging tool

- Use to communicate with others on your team

- Can also be used with other teams/people who use it

Calendly

- Use to coordinate meetings with others outside your team

- Sends available time slots, lets recipient choose a time, and adds it to everyone’s calendar

Hootsuite and Buffer

- Use to schedule social media posts

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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!

At the beginning of the year Kevin had a goal of booking 12 public speaking engagements in 2020. With the Coronavirus that has changed a bit. No one is going out anymore and gatherings of large groups of people are no longer allowed. Up until now he was doing pretty good. He had booked three or four public speaking engagements, but he's had to change his goal.

He decided to tweak his goal to book 12 online interviews for the rest of the year. He is actively seeking opportunities to speak on others’ Zoom learning events, podcasts, livestreams, or Facebook videos. At Array Digital we do our own weekly livestreams, but this doesn't count. He is looking to get in front of other audiences aside from our own.

Think about the goals you had for 2020 and how you can still reach them, even if you need to tweak them.

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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!

We are in the midst of the Coronavirus crisis and as a result Erik has had a lot of news sent to him. The news isn't something that Erik goes out searching for on a normal basis. For the most part he waits for the news to come to him. Whenever there is something big going on usually he hears about it from other people around him.

Recently his wife told him to check out an article about the Coronavirus in the local online newspaper. As he went to read it he saw one of our ads for our clients posted on the website. He was shocked. He couldn't believe that one of our competitors was allowing our ads to be placed on their website. He understood that they were probably looking for a short-term gain, and given the fact that they probably aren’t making as much money these days it's probably important, but he was still very surprised to see this.

When it comes to business don't fall into that trap. It is almost always better to think about the long-term gain than the short-term.

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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!

Today’s guest is Evan Knox, owner of Caffeine Marketing in Atlanta, Georgia.

As the owner of a marketing agency he and his team have had to reevaluate marketing tactics for themselves and their clients during the pandemic. One example is the fly fishing guide company that he is a part of. They decided to turn off all paid advertising online during this time. Normally they run ads for guided fishing trips, however, since they don't know when they will be able to resume trips they have turned off those ads. Instead, the team is researching keywords and writing blog posts about fishing trips. This will create content that they will be able to use far into the future.

Another example is a jewelry store client of theirs in the Atlanta area. This client has both an online store and a brick-and-mortar store. Most of their revenue comes from the brick-and-mortar shop, but they have had to close for the time being. Thankfully they have the capital to rework their marketing and invest in it now so that when all of this is over they will be a step ahead.

The last example is a window film company. The window film company is actually doing pretty well right now. People are home and paying attention to their home’s needs. That includes covering their windows for better temperature control. Marketing is continuing as normal for them.

In cases where money is tight for a business and the revenue isn't coming in right now, it may make sense to pause advertising for the time being. Do what’s right for you and your business.

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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!

We recently let go of a client that we had only had for about two months. There were a lot of red flags from the very beginning of this deal. Even before we signed the contract he was asking for us to make changes to our contract and changes to the scope of work. We have a rule that we only allow one concession per contract if needed, but we broke our own rule and gave in to all of the requests because we wanted the deal.

Erik met the client for the first time after that contract was signed. During that meeting, the client was complaining about the work we were doing for him. He said we were not doing enough and he felt misled by the sales process. In the end, the client suggested we continue though and see how things went. At that point, we should have parted ways.  

After that, he started complaining about the actual creative work we were doing. He became very involved in the creative process and it was clear it just wasn't working out.

Looking back it is a deal we probably shouldn't have made in the first place. We went against our own rules and made numerous concessions for the client. Then we continued the relationship after he made it clear he didn’t think we were doing enough. It was clear neither one of us was happy. 

Sometimes it's better to just rip the Band-Aid off and deal with the consequences in situations like this.

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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 has always felt comfortable speaking in public and actually enjoys it...we know, shocking!

But his point in being there is not just to have an enjoyable time speaking in front of people. There are people there to learn from you and what you’ve done. Erik used to talk about whatever topic he was told to talk about even if he didn’t actually sell those conversations. He realized after years of doing this that if he’s not pitching his services in these talks, then he’s losing a great opportunity.

There are ways to provide value while also extracting value. No matter what he’s asked to talk about, there has to be a tie-in and if there’s not, this may not be the right opportunity. If you’re going to take your time, energy, and probably money, then you really need to have an ask as part of your talk. 

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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 has mentioned in previous episodes that one of his goals for 2020 was to publish a book. His book is going to be about his entrepreneurial journey to getting to $1million dollars in revenue. The reason he chose $1million dollars as the threshold is because his research has shown him that only 4% of businesses ever reach the $1million dollar mark. That means the vast majority of businesses never make it to that point. He wants to see other entrepreneurs succeed and the goal of his book is to try to help them get there faster than he did.

He read a couple of books to help him get started. They were “How to write a book that doesn’t suck and people will buy” and “The book business”. After reading those books he realized he had missed the mark in a couple of places. One of those was the length of his book. After writing about 75,000 words, and still having more to go, he realized his entire book needed to be between 50,000 and 75,000 words. So he has some trimming to do.

The goal is to try and have the book ready to go by June 15th, Erik's birthday. He plans to spend the months of March and April organizing and trimming down the content. He has been undecided whether to make it a chronological account of lessons learned or if he should group it by functional areas. He's also undecided whether it should be more of a novel or a textbook format but he's leaning towards a textbook format. It seems most practical for conveying his ideas.

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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!

Lately on Twitter Erik has offered to coach new entrepreneurs or agency owners that are looking for a little help. He’s doing this because he wishes he had received this kind of coaching when he was starting out. He's a big believer in learning from other's mistakes and he enjoys coaching aspiring entrepreneurs.

The way he sees it is entrepreneurialism is a journey that everyone is on. Many people are ahead of you and many are behind, but eventually everyone will get to where they need to be. The path is much quicker when you learn from those who are ahead of you. That's why he has written a book about how he got started in business and hosts this podcast with Kevin. His aim is to help other entrepreneurs learn from his mistakes.

Erik's book has been written and now needs to be edited. Once that's done he may look into offering coaching or some sort of Mastermind course to follow up the lessons learned in his book. If you're a new entrepreneur, and are interested in 30 days of free coaching by Erik, reach out to him on Twitter at @iamerikjolson.

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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!