Journey to $100 Million: Entrepreneurship & Digital Marketing

Speaking events are important because they help to grow your business. It’s getting your name out there in front of prospects or people who may know someone who could benefit from your services. It generates new relationships and paints you as the expert in your industry.

Kevin has a goal this year to book 10 speaking events outside of Array’s own events. As of January, he has 2 speaking engagements already booked.

One way he’s passively looking for speaking engagements is with his LinkedIn banner that says he is open for speaking events with a bulleted list of topics he can speak on. Once you put yourself out there, people will come to you asking if you’re interested.

There’s also tons of smaller groups that need speakers. Start with these small groups so that you can get some practice then start going for bigger groups.

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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 recently put together an eBook titled Digital Marketing Trends for 2020 because digital marketing changes on basically a daily basis. Typically that happens on social media or in search and it can be overwhelming how fast and frequently the environment is changing. It’s practically a full-time job to keep track of the changes.

Business owners don’t have time to be tracking what’s happening in digital marketing which is why you would hire an agency like us. So we’ve pared it down to the top 5 and here they are:

Messaging: You get onto an app like Facebook Messenger. Some websites have messenger bots and you will see more companies doing that. You are also going to see more and more companies going live which has been extremely simplified with all the platforms that offer the live feature.

Ephemeral content: This was introduced by Snapchat with their Stories feature.

If you want to hear about the rest of the trends, you can go to thisisarray.com/trends to download the eBook.

If you’re an entrepreneur and are the face of your business, you - as the business leader - need to be doing video. It should be part of your plan and your social media because you need to be getting your face out there.

One of Kevin’s goals is to sit down interview-style with 12 people who are making moves in their industry to get lessons and learn things but at the same time, creating content. You can also do live streams; most social media platforms offer this option. Every Friday during lunchtime, we do a live stream with different members of our team. We have a topic related to our industry and answer questions.

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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've found a little challenging is how to increase rates for our older clients. New customers don't really have an issue with our current rates and value proposition, but we have several clients that have been with us for years who pay lower rates.

There are two main schools of thought when it comes to this: standardized pricing for everyone across the board or grandfather in older clients with lower rates. We have chosen to grandfather in older clients, and there are a couple of benefits to doing so. One, it rewards loyalty for those who have been with us for awhile. Two, we avoid issues that might come up from moving to higher rates. This matters because in some cases we have raised rates substantially to coincide with the value proposition we now offer.

What we do instead is implement minor yearly increases to those who have been with us for at least 12 months. Our minimum commitment terms are 12 months so we look at anyone who has fulfilled their minimum commitment and assess a slight increase. This is easier to justify and helps close the gap between some of the old and new rates.

We have a process in place to look at who needs an increase at the end of the year. Last year we started off a bit late and ran into some minor issues when trying to implement new rates with not a lot of notice. This year we will begin that process in September, giving the account manager plenty of time to call their clients and give them a heads up before they receive their letter.

Erik recommends you decide how to handle legacy clients, and put a process in place for how you will raise rates when the time comes.

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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!

In this episode Kevin talks about the side hustle he had during high school.

Kevin grew up in Chincoteague. It's a small island town on the coast of Virginia. The town is known for fishing, boating, and seafood. 

Kevin came up with the idea of catching and selling minnows. Minnows are tiny fish that are great bait for bigger fish. Growing up in the town that he did he saw the need for minnows in fishermen and boat captains. So, in the mornings before school he would create the traps for the minnows and throw them into the ocean.  After school he would go back to check the traps that were full of the tiny minnows. He would then take these buckets of minnows and sell them to the fisherman and boat captains. Sometimes he would make up to $50. Kevin had a part-time job in high school but this was his side hustle that earned him some extra spending cash.

The point here is that there is always something extra you can do for money. If you have a business or are starting a side gig, decide where there is a need. See how you can craft a service or product to fulfill that need and make some extra cash.

—

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!

Back in the day, when Erik first started his business, he worked as a freelancer. He kept his day job and worked on his business on nights and weekends. This meant he was working long hours almost seven days a week. As his business grew, and he got to the point where he was ready to hire help, he started by hiring a couple of freelancers, since that’s what he was familiar with. By this point his business had become his day job and he was now working typical business hours during the day.

Just like he had done in the past as a freelancer, many of these freelancers were only working nights and weekends. The problem with that is that Erik was now working hard during the day and was often needed to help direct the freelancers during their working hours on nights and weekends. It was pretty exhausting.

Erik quickly realized that hiring freelancers was not the answer for him. He decided instead to start hiring consultants who worked full-time during normal business hours. It was worth the extra money to work alongside someone, as opposed to by himself during the day, and then with someone on nights and weekends.

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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!

Kevin has a passion for sales.

Since hiring our Business Development Manager, Glen, last year, Kevin has changed the way he approaches sales himself. Before he used to take on leads from every funnel, but these days he's focusing more on networking and his business profiles to get him personal referrals. He isn't focused as much on leads that come in through phone calls or through our website. Instead he is getting out there on the front lines and building relationships with business owners whenever he can.

When Glen was first hired on, he and Kevin teamed up frequently to close deals together. But after about six months Kevin decided to go out on his own again and look for leads the best way he knows how. His approach is different from that of Glen’s, but together they work. Kevin puts himself out there as an expert in his field and the owner of his agency to bring in the leads he’s interested in pursuing. He still steps in to help Glen close deals when it’s needed, but for the most part he’s working his own leads.

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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 most helpful ways to find out what your audience wants from you or could benefit from is to ask them. You could ask them one-on-one or you could direct your question to your entire audience on social media.

One way Erik likes to do this is by using Twitter Polls to ask for opinions which has been helpful in the process of writing his book.

When you’re not sure what direction to take something, consider your audience. They’ll be happy to tell you if you ask 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!

Kevin talked recently about expansion, applying for awards, getting yourself out there with video, etc. What this does is create buzz and build a perception within your local community or market. Plan things out and push things out to the masses.

—

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 Erik attended a fireside chat with the CEO of Morgan James Publishing. Morgan James is a New York based publisher but the CEO, David Hancock, lives near Erik in Virginia. Erik thought that was pretty interesting and during the talk he found out how that came to be. Essentially Mr. Hancock started his publishing business in Virginia but his customers believed a publisher should be based in New York City. So, he opened a location in New York and just like that his publishing business took off.

Erik was interested in attending this talk because he is writing a book himself about what it took to get his business to $1million a year in recurring revenue. So far Erik has written about 75,000 words for this book. However, during this chat with Mr. Hancock Erik learned that a non-fiction book such as his should be between 40,000 and 60,000 words. This was a huge eye-opener for Erik as he had no idea about the recommended length. He realized he is going to have to cut 1/3 of his book, especially considering he hasn't even finished writing. That will hopefully leave him with the best 2/3 being published.

Erik’s advice here is to look for learning or networking events like this that are pertinent to your business and what you're doing. You never know what you will learn at an event like this and the small fee, time, and effort it takes to attend can be so worth it. It was for Erik.

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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!