Discover how Alex Polamero merges his world religion studies with his passion for business to drive empathetic client relationships and significant growth. In this candid conversation, Alex divulges his unique path and the strategies his consulting firm utilizes to not just attract leads but to ensure they're quality, valued, and ultimately, contribute to a significant rise in business valuation. Get an unparalleled look at how a synergy between sales and marketing can unlock new levels of success.

Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Masters in Marketing Agency Podcast.

• Turnkey sales & HubSpot solutions
• The impact of studying world religions
• Strategies beyond lead generation
• Improve business valuation tactics
• Insights on website lead conversion

Resources:

• Ninestone Partners
• DevNoodle

Connect with Alex Polamero:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

• Josh Hoffman - LinkedIn
• Alex Garashchenko - LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 1:08:03 - Clients like it when we have skin in the game. For sure. Absolutely. Yeah. And if we can help two x three x or more their valuation on top of their annual revenue, they start seeing numbers in a different, in a different light, right? Oh, and we can help. Now that's a smaller company, right? Let's say like three to 15 million. If we can help the owner get out of being the only person doing all this stuff, that's major, right? Talk about lifestyle change.
• 28:04 - Alex P: I learned a lot from that experience, right? About working with partners about negotiating agreements. A lot of times when you're, buying or selling a business, you gotta think about the end game, even though it's kind of hard. What happens if one of you dies? What happens if one of you doesn't wanna work together? You know, all these things. And also the, the just the power of patience and perseverance, right? Because running an agency takes a lot of effort and there's a lot of, you know, trial and error and, winning and losing and trying to learn from others who've done it, you know, better than I have. So that was my journey.
  Josh: I appreciate you sharing that. Is there anything that you would do differently? Because it sounds like you did think about a few things and how this could go, but yeah. Would you do anything differently?
  Alex P: Yeah, I wouldn't have sold, I wouldn't, so I wouldn't do that. Like two years in business is not very long, right? There are a few key things that I would do. Number one, right? I would start, I creating systems in my business from day one, right? How, so? Scalability is about systems, which people talk about this all the time, right? But I was more of a sales person and technical expert in marketing automation. So I was like, well I can go get business and I could do the work, right? But the creating the systems for replicating that without me, that was the hard part. So I would start that much sooner.
• 22:41 - Alex P: So then how do you align that back to like your worldview for running a business?
  Alex G: I think, all right, let's see. I think let's take it one, one to one initially, like relationship based. Whether it's a relationship with your, your spouse or your child or your partner, whatever, you know, business partner, whatever, take it. I think that, I used to say that communication is the most important. I switched that to expectations are the most important. And I think that dives deeply into how you enter a situation with what expectations you have. And potentially those expectations are not aligned on the other side. So you have mismatch. And that creates, you know, you could take that on the product side as well. And that creates a spectrum of the expectation versus reality is essentially sat user satisfaction, user experience, right? You need to understand that. So that's kind of on a one-to-one level. And also going to a somewhat of a one-to-one level with a product. You, with a product as opposed to the relationship you have with someone else. And I think, you know, take that to a worldview. If we understand each other's expectations, maybe on a worldview we can identify those gaps and at least have a relevant conversation.
• 41:40 - We're we're telling them this is how we're gonna build your company, right? We're leaders in their company with them on their executive team. They love it when we show them a dashboard and it says, revenue going up, Right? Here are the awesome things. Here are any challenges we're facing and what we're gonna do about it. Right? And the shorter that meeting, the better. When we're not meeting expectations, going all the way back to the beginning of our conversation, that's when clients are like, I wanna micromanage and help, you know, solve all these problems. So the, the more we tie our work to actual results, the easier it is for everybody. 
• 21:42 - For us, at the end of the day, it's expectations and satisfaction. Obviously for us. Did we hit the due dates, right? Because we're doing technical work. It's construction a lot of times, right? So did we hit it on time? But that's not really what matters. What matters is the client satisfied? Did we manage expectations we could have delivered earlier and they're not satisfied or we could deliver late and they are satisfied. So we base that on how's the relationship with the client? Are they, are we aligned on expectations and what's their rate of satisfaction? And the more of those we get ultimately will lead to more for us, really, retention is more valuable than the initial sale. 

Dive into the world of B2B marketing with the founder of Maven Collective Marketing. This episode is packed with insider knowledge, from carving a niche in Microsoft Partners' marketing to the value of being a B Corp. Discover actionable strategies and relatable agency anecdotes that will inspire any entrepreneur or marketer!

Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Masters in Marketing Agency Podcast.

• Insights on B2B SaaS marketing
• Benefits of B Corp certification
• Improving website conversion
• Trail running and mental toughness
• Keys to onboarding new employees

Resources:

• Maven Collective Marketing
• DevNoodle

Connect with Erica Hakonson:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

• Josh Hoffman - LinkedIn
• Alex Garashchenko - LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 60:00 - Erica: What I love about this and what I love about the B Corp community is that you are now a for-profit organization that is not just for profit, it's actually for the benefit of your community. And so when we talked about process a little earlier, Alex, you know, one of the things that helped me establish process even further was going through this assessment. ‘Cause it was things we were doing, but maybe not things we were documenting and it was community building that we were doing, but maybe I didn't have it in our staff handbook as something as a policy of ours or a mandate of ours. So we have pro bono volunteer hours that are built into our employees work and some of that we do together as a group. Some of that they find their own passion projects and work on. We try to find organizations that we align with value wise to give our time and energy and skillset. And so I know that it feels like when you're a small business, there's just so many things cooking, how could I possibly get to those pieces? But those pieces sometimes are what fuels us to get to that next step in our entrepreneurial journey. And for me for sure, having that as a part of our mission, having that as a part of our work and mandate and dedicating ourselves to an organization that keeps you honest about that, is a really huge opportunity that I'm excited about this year. Like I said, we're in assessment, we've scored enough to be in assessment and hopefully as we go through the process, we'll then become certified and get to join that amazing community of entrepreneurs and larger organizations that have the same vision and mission of for profit companies not being for profit.
  Alex:Identifying around that purpose is huge. So I think that's, yeah, that's amazing.
• 58:10 - I love the validation that you have on your site. I mean, you have partner client, you know, part partner logos, you have awards, you have scores and numbers and then you have testimonials, you have case studies. The only other thing is I would say that you could leverage on your case study in the, how we did it, I can't get to that right now, but there is, once you show, because you're asking for them to give their email address to get the case study, one of the potential that could be the main CTA on that, but a secondary CTA could be something like, you know, once you show these are the results before they get into the nitty gritty, it could be like, do you want this, you know, want the same results for your company and then whatever that free offer is for that first call. Yeah. 'cause if they identify with the case study and they envision themselves in that case study, then they're gonna potentially want the same results for them. So having that additional CTA for them to potentially, not just download it but to schedule a call with you.
• 46:04 - But if we're staying on the front side of things, I'd say you have a really clear message and helping your ideal audience solve the problem. So I mean, initially just upfront on this, above the fold, like building a website sales machine, who wouldn't want that? I'm an agency. I want that. I, I can have a website that does my sales. Excellent. And you have good calls to action or grow your website, see pricing, grow your website sales. So I would, and even that like little footnote around a free conversion strategy, like a very, very tempting and then you build trust right away by, by getting your brand banner in there to say like, look of all these people that we've helped, these people could look exactly like you and we could help you in some of the same ways. If you scroll down a little bit, I really liked the way you also did clear problem solving for the client. So you gave them a path and those paths are solving their problem. You know, you're either managing an existing website, you're starting a new website, or you're managing client websites. So I feel like all of those were really clear and, and helped me feel comfortable if I came with a problem, you addressed a problem that I would have based on again, who your target audience is.
• 31:34 - I think it seems like in each case you've stepped up to whatever the challenge was. Maybe that's just, that's seems to be just your personality. But I talk with some people all the time that wanna get into entrepreneurship or want to do something and they're waiting for whatever that right thing is or a situation changes and they're like almost crippled by like, there's so many decisions, I don't know which one to take. And I have this, this thought that it's, you just look at the skills that you've acquired can kind of like the talents that you have at hand and then what's the next possible best move, which it seems like you naturally do throughout. And then the clients coming to you stepped up to the challenge.
• 26:45 - So we need to approach it in quite a few different ways. And then we get them doing work quite quickly so that they can put what they're learning to use and then they can get feedback quite quickly as well. So they're, you know, everyone gets scared of the red pen. I mean that's a very old terminology, but like the best way to learn is through getting that editorial feedback or through getting that, you know, strategic feedback and then taking that into the next application. And you can just instantly see growth when you start to apply things that way where you're either surrounding them with tools and knowledge and then they're getting the feedback and then the next time they do something very similar. It's like, it's at a whole new level. 

Dive into a whirlwind episode where marketing melds with haunted houses, tech trends, and a no-holds-barred web design teardown. It's a detailed delivery filled with sharp insights and hilarious ripostes, perfect for anyone looking to extract the secrets behind potent digital growth strategies.

Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Masters in Marketing Agency Podcast.

• Haunted house becomes marketing goldmine
• Revelations from a Revenue Orchestration platform
• Design choices dissected by a web guru
• Mixing tech with creative for strategic success
• Insights on encouraging client content creation

Resources:

• Solid Digital 
• DevNoodle
  
  

Connect with Jesse McCabe:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

• Josh Hoffman - LinkedIn
• Alex Garashchenko - LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 18:41 - So it's like, it's very much driven by like what, what gets measured gets done. Like that's one of my favorite sayings, right? It's like if I'm collecting data on something, I will see progress in some way or another. And I love the scientific method. So like, I guess like how that left brain of like creating software applies to then, like how do we drive people to do and act the way that we want them to act when it comes to like our marketing process, right? Like what I hate and what I will never, ever be is like one of these agencies where, you know, we have this one straight up SEO product and you come in and we're gonna do the same thing for you that we're always gonna do for everybody else. Like that just dr. Like we tried that. It's annoying to me. So like I want to have some sort of agile right process to the way that we are applying marketing. 'cause it's not always gonna work. Like at some point you are going to hit a ceiling if you stay stagnant and just keep doing the same things. 
• 11:11- And so we did that and then like two years ago we get this call from ABC and they're like, Hey, we noticed that you have a pretty popular home haunt. Like at this point we had like thousands of people coming and checking us out. What do you think about, you know, being on this reality show contest thing and basically like this Christmas light show that they have on ABC they did one season or yeah, one season where they like had these Halloween setups. And so, you know, this, the crazy thing is that meant that we had to start building in July to create this display so that they could record it in August. And then, you know, oh sure showed in October. So our neighbors absolutely think we're nuts at this point, right? It's like, what are they doing in July? Anyways, I'm making this a long story, so that's great. It's, yeah, it's awesome. I love it. So it goes, it goes great. We actually like scared the host like so much he fell on his ass. And we ended up winning the show.
• 16:58 - Josh: Do you take anything that's cool from your dev days, and bring it to marketing, you know, best practices, whatever it is? Anything?
  Jesse: Oh, best practices. I don't know about best literally practices. No, but like, I like, I love marketing tech. Like, I love finding new ways that we can use technology and campaigns integrate it with our client stuff. You know what I mean? Like, I'm, right now I'm like way into clay and AI enrichment for, you know, data and like how do we like automate stuff from, you know, coming into A CRM to then like exploring and finding more information about the brand and the person that is, you know, coming to the site and like how does that filter then down into like, you know, sales enablement and, you know, how do we find better qualified leads for our clients? It's all, you know, it's like there's all these new ways of doing this stuff and I just, I love it. I'm working on a WordPress plugin right now to like enhance the experience on our client's websites. 
• 26:50 - I think like when it comes to web design, there's like really kind of like three different types of agencies that do the work. So I think there's like your high-design creative agencies, like, they're typically like B2C kind of agencies where they're trying to always do something different. They're like highly brand-focused, like to the point of almost like changing the brand. And then I think there's like more tech kind of agencies where, you know, they'll find good themes and they'll use those. But the idea is like, we're gonna integrate you and get you like, going with all this stuff. I think a lot of e-commerce companies might use like agencies like that. And then I think like where we fall is we're more strategic. Like I think we have a good balance of tech and we have a good balance of design, but we're not gonna like, do something completely groundbreaking because it's more about like, well  what is this website supposed to be doing for the brand? Like what, how does the marketing team going to use this tool moving forward? Like, how do we get everybody set up so that this becomes a good hub for customers to come learn about who you are. But then like there's an intent, like we want them on some sort of journey that is going to bring value to the organization. And so like, that's really like where, where we end up. 
• 56:34 - Alex: Now this thing they can improve in this way.
  Jesse: And one of the things I was trying to do and I think maybe you guys could apply this for other interviews just like what is the thinking that goes around the difference between products and solutions. So what’s the debate that they’re having around why this decision was made. That was good that you called that out. Maybe you could say like what decision do you think was made to put this there. Because then it goes to the empathy of the person who actually had to put this together. And like maybe they’re going to hear me say something where it’s like yeah we did have that debate. And yeah I lost it you know but at least like it’s like not just saying like their final decision was crap I am literally putting that specific question right into my template, no, I actually until you said it I didn’t I didn’t consider it that way because for me I always hate it because I’m looking at it from the lens of the business owner it’s like I don’t care about your products. Like I have a certain thing that I need to solve I want to I want to find that.

Join us as we unravel the gripping world of behavioral health with Gary Garth, who has transformed personal loss into a mission for systemic change. Expect raw insights on creating life-improving habits, profound industry processes, and the long-term recovery road, all in this intense yet enlightening episode.

Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Masters in Marketing Agency Podcast.

• Discussing the transformative power of planners
• Impact of correctly implemented processes
• The bridge between motivation and discipline
• The holistic approach to client problems
• Finding 'whys' for deep entrepreneurial efforts

Resources:

• Eleva8.io
• DevNoodle

Connect with Gary Garth:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

• Josh Hoffman - LinkedIn
• Alex Garashchenko - LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 20:54 Because we all know, like you, you don't wanna be the the richest man in the graveyard, right? Or, you know, you don't want to be have, have no friends, no love, no connection. So I'm, I, for me it's, that's important. And so it starts with these exercises and then it segments into, okay, if you wanna accomplish this, what kind of rituals do you need to establish your morning ritual, your evening ritual, and how do you plan for your week? We all know like, if you don't schedule it, it doesn't get done. So it's kind of like, let me have this planner that's offline that integrated with all your notifications and apps, et cetera, that you can just sit and look at and reflect and that journal and put some thoughts into, if I wanna be here in one year, what does that look like? Where am I right now, what I need to do to get to that point? And you know, I always tell people it's just a, it's just a tool. Nothing is ever gonna be perfect. You look at mine, you're like, well, what the heck's wrong with this guy? It goes up and down and right and left. But it's, that's the journey. And that's the value that you are conscious and aware and working on yourself, I think. 
• 24:55 - So I think you can do several things. You can have constant reminders, reinforcement, like a planner. Another, another big thing I think is like, expression, birds of a feather flock together, surround yourself with the right, setting, the right people that you can feed off. I'm the same way. I'm very, I'm drawn to energy. So, you know, I like to, if I am around people that are disciplined, motivated, determined, I may be not sharing their exact view on things, but you know, it stimulates me and inspire me in the right way. So if you have that opportunity, you should embrace it. But I always tell people, like sometimes people write me, they bought the planner, they're like, I'm here.I'm living in this neighborhood somewhere that I have never even been and I don't have that opportunity. I'm like, you have the internet, my friend, or you have books. Start reading some self, some biographies and start reading and so you can get inspired in a lot of different ways and just program your mind and look at it like a muscle. It takes time basically. 
• 45:43 - I'm selling my shares, stepped out. I was like, shit, am I making a mistake? But I took that money and then I said, I'm gonna go out and change these statistics. 'cause I was looking into the market and I don't know if you know, but you know, because of social media and the whole trajectory of how everything is going, I think there's a lot of people that feel lost and one out of three Americans actually has, or even worldwide and I think, but America specifically is one out of three has some sort of mental challenge and suicides is at an all time high, especially with teenagers that have a teenage daughter. So, you know, it just freaked me out. I looked into the statistics of addictions, you know, with the opiate crisis and it's basically at a state that it kills more people than car crashes and homicides and everything combined. Basically you take all that and it's still the number one killer and it doesn't get any attention in the media. And then I was like looking at my friends and like, what kind of options would they have had? And then I learned that less than 10% of the 24 million Americans alone they have, that are struggling, that are suffering with some sort of addiction, less than 10% gets treatment. And I start wondering why is that.
• 29:42 - Even one year I was like a platinum member with Tony Robbins. But the whole point was, I remember I was this setting and he was like talking about these drivers of we have as people, right? One is, you know, certainty that we need certainty and then there's uncertainty as a second, you know, driver feeling there is significance, which is for me was always very important. You gotta achieve this and love and connection. But it's just like when you really wanna get fulfilled and what could be that lasting driver for your discipline is when you get tapped into the grow and the give. Because when you start growing as an individual, as a professional, as a, then all of a sudden you start, you feel motivated, that fuels your motivation even further. And then when you have the opportunity, the blessing, the privilege to actually give that back to somebody, then it's really rewarding because then when you're demotivated at some point, like, you know what, there's a lot at stake here. I'm actually helping other people. I have a lot employees here. We're helping a lot of clients. And then that can refuel your discipline. So I think if you can get beyond yourself and use those four first for about I'm safe or I need sobriety, I'm bored, I want to feel significant or had love of connection or draw. If you get beyond your ego, beyond that I just say grow and give. That helps with the drive and motivation.
• 39:55 - So I said the same way, you know, you have to have the right strategy, the right processes, then back the tools with it. And then the people's gotta be trained on that. When you have all of that in place, that's when you get the consistent results. And it's just a very tricky industry I'm in. So it's maybe, I think that's why so many people, some there's not a lot of marketing agencies, for example, cater to this vertical because you got legit script, you got hipaa, HIPAA regulations. There is constantly new leg legislation on like changes in the market. And it's very difficult. So clients, prospective clients come to us, say, Hey, want Google ads? I want this cost per patient. And I say like, before we even go anywhere, we have to have this process go through that calculator. I have to ask you all these questions. I'm not trying to interrogate you, I'm just trying to identify what you're doing. Right. What are you not doing? So we can calculate, start with the end goal, calculate backwards, say how can we hit that decide cost per acquisition, for example. And then we have to look at all those different factors and the clients that are savvy, that are data-driven, that appreciate, you know, the detail. I think we work great with them. We haven't had a cancellation, I think in like 18 months.

Dive into the nitty-gritty of SEO success with Nick Rubright from Ranko Media. Discover how a year of behind-the-scenes experimentation can exponentially grow your site's traffic. From industry-nuanced strategies to content that converts, this episode is an SEO goldmine — delivered with a dash of gaming fun and music band analogies!

Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Masters in Marketing Agency Podcast.

• SEO growth can take about a year.
• Outbound reach is key for SEO.
• Effective link building is not quick.
• Content should generate links or sales.
• SEO is competitive just like gaming.

Resources:

• Ranko Media
• DevNoodle

Connect with Nick Rubright:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

• Josh Hoffman - LinkedIn
• Alex Garashchenko - LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 27:05 - Nick: But I do, I mean I would imagine other marketing agencies struggle with the story of like that first three months being tough where it's like an experiment and yeah, if clients come in and know that it's an experiment, that's the best client. Like when we had Twilio, they knew that it was an experiment and it's like the client saying that is like super helpful. Because then you're kind of like, oh cool, okay. They know that I'm just kind of experimenting and I don't know a lot of things and you almost have like freedom to mess up, you know? And I think the reason my own projects do so much better than client projects is because I feel like I have that freedom to mess up. Hmm. And any of the projects I've grown to like a million visitors a month, I had the freedom to mess up and it wasn't like, it wasn't like the clients attributed the mistakes to me. They attributed the mistakes to like the campaign and they're like kind of asking me like, okay, well this didn't work, so what's next? And those clients are the ones that are successful like a hundred percent of the time pretty much
  Alex: Because you're able to take risks and like you said, like it's the 20% where where it works. So you need to be able to take a lot of risks to see where's it gonna work in this industry. 
• 44:40 - We don't care about getting traffic to this page. This is just some stat page, right? We don't care about like links necessarily. We care about making money. So the way we make this make money is we go, you know, from this page that has all the links we link to our other resources on the website. So that could be landing pages or content pieces you wanna rank because you know they're gonna make money. Like if it's like, like if you're plen, if you wanna rank for like best buyer intent data, yeah. Top intent data providers, you would, you know, build this stat roundup and link from that to this, you know, intent data providers list and pass the authority there and that one would rise as a result. You wanna do this a lot. It's not like you do one and this one page gets a lot of links and then you're good. That can work in some cases with like content heavy websites, right? But if you have a page that you're really trying to drive authority
• 26:16 - Even though your market is like insurance or like gambling, right? The gambling niche is super competitive, but everyone's paying for links. So it's like, okay, just don't do that and you can win. You know? Like if you just do digital PR the right way and figure it out. And that's the thing is like once you figure it out, it's like, like, okay, now we can just like print links. But the process of like that first three months is kind of a trial. And I think that the first three months of anything is a trial. Like even when I, when I hire a new employee, it's like the first 90 days is kind of like, all right, we're kind of fucking around and like trying to figure out how this fits into this, right? And this is burn money, you know? And then we get to a place in three months where we're like, okay, now we have a lot of stuff that we can forecast off. But I do, I mean I, I would imagine other marketing agencies struggle with the story of like that first three months being tough where it's like an experiment and yeah, if clients come in and know that it's an experiment, that's the best client. Like when we had Twilio, they knew that it was an experiment and it's like the client saying that is like super helpful. 'cause then you're kind of like, oh cool, okay. They know that I'm just kind of experimenting and I don't know a lot of things and you almost have like freedom to mess up
• 37:53 - And not competing brands, right? So HubSpot's not really a competing brands, but they have a blog so they'd be a good one to research close, right? I've written for close before and this has an audience of salespeople. Like you basically want to think like referral traffic, like if I get on this website, are people gonna click through like is it a clickable link? Because that's how Google's kind of looking at it as a vote. So you wanna get votes from these like authoritative sources and you can't pay for these 'cause these guys care about their website and the guy running the website works for a company that, you know, they don't sell links. That's not their thing and they'll, you know, probably get in trouble for doing that. Like they can get fired. So it's not something. They just want interject real here real quick. It makes so much sense when we talk to our clients, we look at like buckets where their leads come from in terms of their partners. Like for example, they may have partners in other industries like attorneys or real estate agents or whatever it is, and they send traffic their way because in what they do in their business, they say, okay, you may need the service go over here. And this is exactly the same thing that's happening here. Someone's reading content here and as part of it, if they're referencing your data, they, they care about that recommendation. Yeah. They're essentially referring your business.
• 49:17 - And I learned that from Twilio, one of our clients. 'cause like one of the campaigns we did like an infographic campaign, it didn't do well at all and we had to pivot, but they were like, well we can use this for other stuff. And I was like, well, what do you mean? And then they're like, well we can have our sales guys use it or like, we can publish it on social media or share it on our blog or something. And I was like, dang, they make a lot of use out of this. So it's not so isolated. Like they're not like, I guess they're milking the investment a lot.
  Josh: Totally. Yeah. I think they're getting like sales enablement out. I mean they're literally getting, they're milking the content to get as, as everyone should be. And I think that lowers not the risk. I don't know if risk is the right word, but when you're able to use it in different, you know, avenues, I think it just gets more value out of the project.

Step into the thrilling world of healthcare marketing mastery with Saul Marquez. Dive into persuasive techniques, podcasting as a sales tool, and get an exclusive sneak peek into the dynamic pre-show banter. Captivating insights and hearty laughs guaranteed!

Here are a few topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Masters in Marketing Agency Podcast. 

• Heartfelt philosophy meets business.
• Podcasting as a high-impact sales tool.
• Insights on account-based marketing.
• Stone soup story: value-first approach.
• Aiming for results, not just tactics.

Resources:

• Outcomes Rocket
• DevNoodle

Connect with Saul Marquez:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

• Josh Hoffman - LinkedIn
• Alex Garashchenko - LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 32:00 - So the thing that I really wanna urge our listeners to do is to not forget that marketing has four pillars. And we were talking about this kind of bringing it back from the start of the show to now all those tactics are preceded with the strategy pillar. So you start with strategy. Once you have your strategy put together, you now can employ the owned, earned and paid verticals of marketing. And so we're able to help our customers in any one of, and any one of those verticals. But where we start is the strategy. And under strategy, you have some very simple things. Your brand house, which consists of your brand purpose, your brand differentiator, your brand attributes. Then from your brand house, you go down one level and you identify your ideal client personas, your ICPs, you clearly outline their pain points, you clearly outline their goals, common objections to why they wouldn't wanna work with you. And so that becomes another element of your strategy,
• 35:19 - And the earned is all about OPS, other people's stages. So you got your own stages, then you go on ops. Now the beauty of ops is that you don't, all you have to do is show up and add massive value. The people that host you. So Josh and Alex, you guys are hosting me on your stage and I'm grateful for it. And anytime I get an opportunity to show up on someone's stage, my intentions to add massive value. And so you go, you show up, you add massive value. There's publications, there's media, that's other forms  of earned very little. People think about user-generated content. So like UGC is essentially like if somebody, if you write, if you put a social post out there and unsolicited, somebody says, wow, like Alex and Josh did a bang up job on my website, like I'm getting conversions like never before.
• 16:21 - Josh: Okay? So if you don't have a plan,
  Saul: You become part of somebody else's plan. What does that mean? So this is a phenomenal quote that I love, and actually Josh, Alex, I was sharing with you guys with my son, you know, even I want him to know this. And by the way, for anybody listening, it's important that you also know this, if you do not have a plan, you do become part of somebody else's plan. And that is true for your brand, your personal brand, your company's brand. And the stat is very surprising. And that's only 23% of healthcare marketers actually have their content documented inside of a plan. And so what that means is the other 77% are becoming part of somebody else's plan. So the opportunity in this is that if you do put your plan together, there's an opportunity for you to have a competitive advantage. And so that's why I love, that's what I love about that is that the, you have the control
• 40:52 - So we actually started, like our business started as a podcast. Like, I did not intend to start an agency, but guess what happened? I, so this year, we'll hit 2000 episodes on the Outcomes Rocket. Amazing. What a pleasure and privilege it has been to sort of sit down with all these amazing people, all healthcare leaders. Not only have we built an amazing network of just business leaders in the industry, organization, leaders in the industry, the knowledge. And by having all these conversations, I started seeing patterns that there's huge gaps in the marketing business in healthcare. And we decided to address them. Now, one of our main business drivers is our podcast. So we use the podcast to create thought leadership content, but we also use it to meet with our ideal client personas, our ICPs,
• 44:00 - And what that story is all about, and you know, we talk about it at our company, is that sometimes you gotta make stone soup. And what that means is if you show up and you are asking for things, you're not leading with value, people are gonna close their doors, people are gonna hide their food. If you show up offering ideas and value, which is what a podcast does for you, right? You're showing up to offer, not showing up to ask people receive you more, more, more openly. The other thing here is it's the importance of how fast great ideas catch fire. So when you have a really interesting idea and you're creating awesome content, people wanna share, especially if they're part of it. So now you, now they're your guest, now they wanna share. So the network effect of that, like it happened with this stone soup story. Like, it is, that's what happens with your podcast.

Discover expert marketing insights with our agency experts as they uncover industry missteps, AI’s transformative potential, and the essential balance between strategy and operations. A must-listen for marketers striving for success.

Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Masters in Marketing Agency Podcast.

• Find your niche in marketing
• Leverage AI without losing the human touch
• The power of SOPs in streamlined processes
• Building a referral network for agencies
• Essential questions before buying a service

Resources:

• ZenChange Marketing
• DevNoodle

Connect with Diane Moura:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

• Josh Hoffman - LinkedIn
• Alex Garashchenko - LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 28:29 - And something like that, I think can be a real game changer for a lot of businesses, whether, you know, if they're SMB, whether they're a startup, if they're SMBs and they're 10 years in, there's still I think a lot of value there and some of the key tenets are around first of all like, let's make sure that we not only understand the vision of the company, but how are, you know, how are all of the KPIs attached to that vision. You know, if you are, whatever your level is in a company, you should have clarity as to what you're doing and how that impacts the overall company. And so if the executives have KPIs that they're trying to hit and you know, maybe they're bonus eligible, you still need everyone else in the company who is going to have a piece of those KPIs so that it can all be effective. And then there's another, I think, really important tenant that is called right person, right seat 
• 14:45 - Let's make sure that, you know, we start with an MVP, you know, we make sure we test it, we test the market, you're always going to be kind of adding different features. You know, you might do some pivots to some extent, but you have to at least get something out there and get it working first. And the other thing, and this is coming from a marketer, is don't pull the trigger on marketing too soon. So if you don't have a product yet, you can burn through all your cash if you get really excited and you start pushing out all of the marketing that it's going to need. And especially I think with, with SaaS companies, because it's a, it's typically a pretty heavy lift the marketing that's required for SaaS. And if you start to do that too soon, then you know, like things are never gonna be delivered in the time that you think they will. There's always gonna be issues and you know, I worked with a client where they had the front end and the back end development were happening in different parts of the world. And when they finally brought them together, they actually didn't talk. So that was, that was kind of an issue. Had they been a little bit more conservative at the beginning in terms of their spend, they probably would've ended up in a better spot.
• 46:08 - We're not the, you know, give, give me a certain amount of money per month and it's all a black box and trust me, I'm gonna get your marketing done. We're very transparent in the services. So we basically say, okay, here's all the things that need to be done. Now let's have a conversation about what you have the capabilities to do in house versus where it makes sense to outsource and let's look to prioritize. 'cause a lot of SMBs, you know, if you ask them their budget, they really don't know. Some of them are attempting marketing for the first time. So we do need to have that discussion with them and say, look, if you have the people in in house who can, you know, do your own video shoots, great. If you don't, you know, we can handle the shoots for you. You know, if you have your own people who can do social media, you know, do social media, but then maybe engage us just to provide them with some coaching or maybe they're creating content but they're not actually out there doing engagement and you know, maybe they're able to do it for the main brand, but they're not able to do it for your personal brand. 'cause that's like a kind of a, you know, as the founder, you should be top of funnel for your business and so maybe that's not their capabilities. And so then we just, we have a very open conversation with them and we prioritize into phases and then usually that will lead to the engagement.
• 39:26 - And if you're not using that, you're falling behind. And I'm glad that you mentioned, you know, you'll have these unicorns with a few people. 'cause I've always had the thought that AI, if used properly, which you kind of went into pretty deep, which which was great, is essentially a company in a box or a marketing team in a box or like, and there still needs to be that oversight, but you know, it allows you for, and I'll tell you how I use it. Like, I have all these philosophical thoughts and that's why I love getting into Philosophy on this podcast. But I'm not the greatest writer. And what allows me to do is it is not gonna come up with a new philosophical theory, but if I pump in my theory notes, it makes me a good writer and then it makes it a lot easier for someone to read. So, so I, I just think everyone, you know, it is just this tool that makes people more efficient for bad writers. It makes us good writers. 
• 44:47 - Alex: It's really interesting. And the way that you described that, it sounds like you provide a lot of value. Where does that initial kind of discovery before you get to the engagement and where does the engagement start? Is that, that's something we've been talking with a lot of agents is about, you know, there's the initial building, the relationship and discovery. So what does that look like for you?
  Diane: Yeah, so typically, we'll have an initial exploratory call with a potential client because as much as, you know, if you give me an attorney and you tell me their, you know, personal injury attorney, you know, I've, I've probably got 85% of their marketing plan in my head, right? Because we worked with so many of them, but I don't have that extra 15%. So that has to be personalized. So we, we have conversations about, you know, their business and what has, what has worked well, what hasn't worked well, what resources do they have internally. So we're try,  you know, our initial meeting is we're basically capturing that information and we're sharing some things as well, but we really wanna make sure that we focus and target and then we go away and we do our analysis and we come back and we share that presentation that I described to you.

Dive into an enlightening mix of marketing mastery and personal evolution with Will Palmer, as he sets forth his vision for transforming legal marketing with Growth Lab. From leveraging CRO to valuing happiness as courage, this episode is a perfect blend for those seeking professional growth and self-discovery in the marketing sphere.

Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Masters in Marketing Agency Podcast.

• Explore cutting-edge CRO for law firms
• The importance of EOS in business management
• Converting legal expertise into successful sales
• Balancing work, life, and personal happiness
• Building a robust referral network among agencies

Resources:

• Growth Lab
• DevNoodle

Connect with Will Palmer:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

• Josh Hoffman - LinkedIn
• Alex Garashchenko - LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 21:49 - Josh: And now I guess to switch gears from a little bit of that fear talk and talking about happiness. 'cause I know it's a topic that both of us really care about, all three of us really care about. And you have a quote on your LinkedIn that's, that I love and it says, happiness is a form of courage. So can you kinda explain what that means?
  Will: Yeah, happiness is a form of courage. I think beyond doing things that scare us, like we just discussed, there's this idea in life to sort of pursue our calling and understand what our calling is and to even understand what our calling is takes courage in my opinion because, you know, it requires a lot of inner work. Who am I as a person? What do I actually enjoy doing? Does what I enjoy doing give me life and fulfillment and happiness? Is that what I'm doing right now? And that certainly was me for many years, you know, in professional sales, selling for a payroll company, learned a lot of great things, had a lot of great people around me and it benefited my career. But you know, that's not giving me joy. I am selling a commodity service and it was all a numbers game with sales. So making those decisions to transition to things with a lot less security because it aligns with my personal values. And that is sort of the definition I think of fearlessly pursuing our calling to get to happiness. 
• 46:07 - Will: Eckhart Tolle, “The Power of Now”, don't read it, listen to it because it's very difficult to read. It's heavy. If you listen to it, it will make life much easier. But that is all about, you know, I get it, mindfulness presence, it's all like a big thing, but there's a reason for it. If you follow Dan Harris, the BC anchor, he's written a bunch of stuff and done some podcasts when he had a panic attack on air on Good Morning America. He's a cool, he's a cool one. So
  Josh: His book some, what's his, the title of his book,
  Will Palmer: 10% Happier is one of 'em. That
  Josh Hoffman: That's right. That's, that was one,
  Will: That's a good one.
  Josh: That he wrote after having the panic attack. Yeah.
  Will: So “The Power of Now” is kinda like that and, but Eckhart Tolle is like one of the OGs about presence and mindfulness and how just basically stop letting the outside world dictate your mood and, and stop letting other people and circumstances you have no control over dictate your pursuit in life. So that's a, that's a powerful thing.
  Josh: Powerful. My favorite topic in life is stoicism. And that sentence is essentially the, the definition of stoicism.
• 20:24 - Will: Well, not a lot hasn't worked. I will say that it has disrupted in a few different ways without going into specifics. The sort of, it's kind of rattled some cages of people that have been in a comfortable spot let's say. And that has been difficult because when you rattle cages to get the best outcomes for everyone involved, yeah it just can be hard. So, but it's necessary. So I don't know that a lot of bad stuff has come of it really.
  Alex: Okay. So like necessary challenges, it's kind of forced conversations or forced certain issues that might have been otherwise kind of, yeah. Just left out there.
  Will Palmer: Cool. You, I mean you have to slow down to speed up with it because we implemented ourselves and a lot of people are like, do you implement yourself or do you pay somebody to do it? We did it ourselves. So that takes a lot of time. And getting into the swing of things, I flew my leaders out to Kansas City to sort of launch EOS, so Oh cool. You know, there's a time and money investment that can feel like you're, if you're impatient like me and type A, you're just like, I want stuff fixed and move fast. And it's like, not yet.
• 39:55 -  Not really. I mean, my last couple years of selling for the national company, I was doing mostly virtual stuff. But it's a powerful thing to be local in a market and not just an inside sales rep and actually have a law firm. I feel like lawyers, when they really do trust a sales rep or a growth consultant, it's like, it's like a baby bird seeing its mom for the first time. It's like, you're my person. I don't care who else is on your team, you're my person, you're here, you're local. I've had lawyers jokingly be like, I know where you live and if you mess with me I will find you. And I'm like, ha ha. Yeah, I know. But I'm like, no, it's true. It's skin in the game. And I embraced that. I was like, yeah, listen, I'm local. If I screw everything up for you then what you gonna go trash talk the BS that's coming out of my mouth? Like it doesn't mean no good. So it's, it's good to have people in local markets that can build trust.

Dive into a whirlwind of marketing strategies and personal revelations with Eric Ritter. Discover the essence of blending SEO with top-notch cuisine, unearthing gems from German streets to Colorado's infamous Casa Bonita. This episode serves a delectable mix of agency insights, cultural anecdotes, and the undeniable charm of nut butters. Don't miss out on these quirky takes and valuable lessons!

Here are a few topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Masters in Marketing Agency Podcast.

• Partnering and understanding clients.
• Rich Dad, Poor Dad SEO makeover.
• Importance of community and connection.
• Integrating German philosophies in business.

Resources:

• Digital Neighbor
• DevNoodle
• The Search Bar Podcast on Spotify
• The Search Bar Podcast on YouTube

Connect with Eric Ritter:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

• Josh Hoffman - LinkedIn
• Alex Garashchenko - LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 38:55 - We work with bigger brands such as Rich Dad, poor Dad came to us, you know, saying, Hey, I'm getting my ass kicked by Dave Ramsey, he's getting a lot more traffic to his website. Can you help us out? We said absolutely. So we did a full audit of the website, worked with his internal team of developers and marketers to kind of say, Hey, this is what you need to do on your website. You have 12 years of like a lot of great content here, but it's kind of a house of cards. It needs to completely be restructured. So we helped with that to restructure it, working with them, helping them through kind of building a new website there. So that's, you know, where we work with people, we work with a lot of creative agencies that don't have in-house SEO or have in-house digital marketing, but they do a lot of creative work. They might build a website but they don't know how to market it. They don't know how to drive traffic there. And my background, right? I got my master's in advertising. So, and my first job was in traditional advertising. 'cause again, from a very small age, right in that walker, that's what I've cared about like TV ads, right? And kind of making that emotional connection with people. So we're really good at partnering with those creative agencies because we understand kind of how that works and how SEO kind of fits in with that because you know, you wanna make a a pretty website but you also wanna get traffic to it and you gotta kind of marry those two things
• 27:14 -  And so a lot of agencies can deliver results. They know how to do it. We all kind of have similar processes, but what really matters to me is are you a good partner? Are you partnering? Are you understanding your client, right? And so that's why I say we don't have clients, we have neighbors, right? Because that philosophy of getting to know someone, you're not just a number. You know, we're actually making real human connections here and we're working together to continue to get better results. And so that's, you know, been important to me in my personal life. And that's something that kind of bled over into professional as well through the agency and that philosophy that we give onto our, our clients or neighbors.
• 34:42 -  I don't wanna nickel and dime the client or I always want to do the right thing, you know, talk coming back, you know, Josh said golden rule and that's like stuck in my head, like the golden rule of like, hey, you know, if it's gonna take us 15 minutes more to make this kick ass for the client, they're not paying for those 15 minutes. Let's do it. Right? That's the right thing to do. And so at the time I was listening to a lot of Gary Vaynerchuk, Gary V right? And Gary V you gotta take it with a a take it a certain direction, right? Because he's very over the top sometimes of like, listen, you gotta optimize your day, you gotta be working all the time. You're sitting at home watching Netflix, you could be using that time making yourself better, right?. And at the time he had the message of if you're unhappy with your full-time gig, wherever you're working, find something and make that your side hustle until that side hustle becomes sustainable, then you can make that your main hustle. 
• 19:39 -  Alex:  Have you heard about the Gemba? Does that mean anything to you? 
  Eric - It doesn't, no.
  Alex: So in Toyota, basically going to the Gemba is going to the place of work and doing, and that's a huge, in part of Toyota culture and a lot of Japanese culture in general is going to the Gemba to see how work is done so you can understanding of what's happening on the ground floor. And that's a core principle of, of theirs.
  Eric: Yeah. And I think that's a practice. Very similar practice. Yeah. Very similar to kind of what, what's important to me as well is kind of understanding, you know, I call it in the trenches, you know, 'cause you know, I want people to trust me, you know, just like, you know, I'm in the foxhole with them, right. And who you're gonna trust more than someone who you've been into foxhole and been through battle.
  Alex: And you're able to see like root cause there really yourself instead of trying to operate from a high level taking just people's work for things.
• 28:13 - Josh: So I am very much in the same boat of just being kind and whether, you know, it's karma or whatever it is just like golden rule, a million things that kind of point into like, okay, yes, this is what we should be doing. However, you know, sometimes people can take advantage of that. So has that ever been the case where, you know, you are going in this nice kind approach, but someone tried to take advantage of it?
  Eric: Yeah, no, great question Josh. And absolutely 100%. You know, and it's really a gut punch, right? Because you know, for all of us in life, you're like, hey, if I follow the golden rule, I should get rewarded, right? Like I never, you know, cross the street when it says don't walk and then one time I'm running late and I do run across when it says don't walk and I get caught even though, you know, a million times in my life I've always done the right thing. And you know, so people are like, well why'd I even follow the golden rule? You know, if I'm gonna get in trouble? And same thing with us is, you know, when you give just a little bit in the business sense, there's people out there that can take advantage of that, right? Like, hey, you paid your invoice, you haven't paid your invoice yet. And like, oh yeah, yeah, we'll pay it, no problem. And then all of a sudden you're like 60, 90 days later you're doing all this work and they're like, oh, we're outta business, we can't pay you. And you're just like, oh fuck, you know, all that money, all that work we did, we're not gonna get paid for it. So that's been a really, I wanna say a hard lesson I guess for me as a founder is, you know, kind of being able to walk that line of wanting to be kind, wanting to help people out, but also it's a business at the end of the day,  you know, and I have a responsibility to my employees, I have a responsibility to the company to make sure you know, that we are to getting paid for our work.

Dive into an infotainment-rich episode where we drive through everything from weekend plans to wisdom on scaling up your SEO with Steven Schneider. Get under the hood of TrioSEO's success, rev up with strategic insights, and ease into the cornering technique of focusing on high-intent organic traffic—all while getting a sneak peek into a Halloween moose costume and EDM concert stories.

Here are a few topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Masters in Marketing Agency Podcast.

• TrioSEO's unique content focus.
• Driving organic traffic effectively.
• Insights on the entrepreneurship journey.
• The power of patience in business.
• Steven Schneider's SEO strategies.

Resources:

• TrioSEO
• DevNoodle

Connect with Steven Schneider:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

• Josh Hoffman - LinkedIn
• Alex Garashchenko - LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 19:52 - I connected with Connor and he's like a big SEO guy in the space, kind of one of the top people there. So we kind of naturally hit it off, started networking, talking and texting. I met his partner Nathan Hirsch, they're best friends since college. They've been entrepreneurs together for 15 years. They have great success as well and just kinda had this natural flow and rhythm between us and felt like it was just something there. So yeah, one night I was texting Connor and I was just like why don't you guys have an SEO agency? Like this makes so much sense. Like you both have a ton of clout in the SEO space and just business in general. They had just come off their exit in 2019 starting a couple new companies, all this sort of stuff and they're like oh no we have it all mapped out. Like we have a 20 page document that is what we would do, how we would do it. Everything is planted to the T.
• 55:49 - And then there's optimizing towards human behavior. And the human behavior piece is we go through a process of understanding customer personas that a client has, mapping those out, understanding kind of, which pages relate to which customers and what are they trying to, like, what kind of concerns, questions, buying, you know, buying questions they have as they're on each site. And so we build it to be a sales, a digital salesperson, essentially. We need to answer these questions as we go down the page. And then as we're monitoring for that, we're looking how far down do they scroll. If 50% of the people scroll to the bottom of the page, that's not a good thing 'cause they didn't find what they were looking for. Yeah. They didn't
  Steven: Have their answer
• 33:42: I don't know if it's taught, but the one thing that I constantly remind myself of is patience. Like it is the most underrated attribute of an entrepreneur. I would say if you are just very, very patient and thinking years, that's kind of something that we always have. That's why we kind of also clicked is because like the agency within Nate and Connor and I, it was always like, year one is fine. Like we're just gonna hope, like focus on what I said, like processes and team and all that sort of stuff. And I think everyone is so blinded by trying to make a million dollars in 30 days, and it's like why aren't you making a million dollars in five years? It's like, it's like it's gonna be way more sustainable, way more successful and it's probably gonna last, you know, 10 plus 15 years down the road. So I think reminding yourself to zoom out, think about why you started, like no one gets into business to flip it and sell it in a year. And so it's like if you're actually in it for the long haul, like treat it like it's a long haul and do everything else that's very process-oriented and systems-wise so that your life is easier and you can actually scale. But if you're just constantly in the weeds, it's like you're, why, why would you start a business for that reason?
• 16:48 - That is a feeling you don't want to feel again. Like, you wanna minimize that feeling as many times as possible moving forward. So you're gonna create a system, you're gonna create a process, you're gonna have your team like hone in on that to avoid it. And so it's like that conflict, then let's change. And so if you can go into any situation thinking like that and knowing like, wow, the moment this sucks, like I hate this feeling but what can we do to make sure that we minimize this moving forward? And that is the change that will kind of like compound to become a successful endeavor.
• 28:47 - Josh: On that note, what do you do with customers who ask for something that you don't specialize in or, or don't have internally?
  Steven: We have a pretty good referral network so we'll just say like, Hey, we don't do that sometimes like with links right now we're starting to, well white label someone else's agency and bring them in under ourselves so that we can kind of still manage the communication, manage the billing, make sure all the reporting's good. Like it's just easier from the client's point of view where they just work with us, and then we manage everything else. But I think I'd say it's pretty few and far between where people will be like, Hey, I also want to do email marketing and it's a must that this happens. It's like people come to us knowing we do content. I would say the only kind of in discrepancy is when people want to do like local SEO, and that's just like an entirely different can of worms. And so we're like, we have a referral for that, and that's fine