Pure Gold Business Podcast

Most service-business owners don’t have a lead problem. They have a follow-up problem.

In this episode, I sit down with Cheri Martinen, a fourth-generation insurance agent who bought out her parents’ agency over a 7-to-8-year plan and learned every side of it: sales, HR, bookkeeping, and carrier relationships. She shares the direct mail campaign built around a smoke alarm battery that brought in leads right away, and why she says 80% of sales close between the 5th and 20th contact.

We also get into the part of business most owners avoid until it’s too late:

• What happens to your personal assets if you operate without business insurance
• What underwriters look at: your structure, revenue and payroll
• Why umbrella and cyber coverage matter when lawsuits are the risk
• How an independent broker quotes your business across multiple carriers, and why it costs the buyer nothing
• Why masterminds, outside help and delegation keep owners from burning out

If you’re the bottleneck in your own business, this one’s for you.

Connect with Cheri:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheri-martinen-a6002725/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61575834316721
• Instagram: @cheri_martinen
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BancorpInsuranceLaPine
• Her book: https://a.co/d/01V9fXkW

Want to see where your business is leaking? Book a free strategy session with Pure Gold Business Solutions: puregoldbusiness.com

The doc also had an open to-do to confirm the book title from the Amazon link and add it to the description. The Gemini notes call it “Covered,” but those are auto-generated. I only saw the first part of the checklist, so there may be more below it.

If you're interested in working with Angelo, click below to book a strategy session and get started:

Book your strategy session here: https://www.puregoldbusiness.com/start

After a short break, we're back with a new episode of Pure Gold Business Podcast. 

Since being away and running sales calls for my new venture, I thought it would be fitting to share what some insights that I've picked up and can pass along to you in order to make those conversations easier on you and your prospects.

If you're interested in working with Angelo, click below to book a strategy session and get started:

Book your strategy session here: https://www.puregoldbusiness.com/start

Have you ever given everything you had to a job, a friendship, or a relationship—showing up early, staying late, doing work that wasn’t even yours to do—only to be treated like you're completely disposable the second you ask a real question?

In this milestone 10th episode of the Pure Gold Business Podcast, host Angelo Cottingham dives deep into a hard truth that most people avoid: loyalty without reciprocity isn't a virtue—it's self-sabotage.

If you’ve ever been gaslit, ghosted, or turned into the "villain" simply for standing up for basic respect, this episode is your wake-up call. Angelo breaks down the toxic patterns that keep high-performers stuck in unrewarding situations and delivers a strategic, step-by-step game plan to regain control of your time, income, and future.

If you're interested in working with Angelo, click below to book a strategy session and get started:

Book your strategy session here: https://www.puregoldbusiness.com/start

Sit down with me and my business partner Justis Daniels as we continue talks of imposter syndrome,  Justis, his story, and what we’ve built together through Pure Gold Business Solutions & The Rocket Science Experiment. 

If you're interested in working with Angelo, click below to book a strategy session and get started:

Book your strategy session here: https://www.puregoldbusiness.com/start

Will Allen walks through the moment imposter syndrome almost killed his business — and the one shift that made it disappear for good. Reps beat confidence every time.

Will Allen didn't feel ready when he started Liaison Community Management — he just started anyway. In this conversation, Angelo and Will break down why imposter syndrome isn't just a mindset problem, but an inexperience problem, and the only fix is doing the thing enough times that the doubt runs out of ammunition. They get into what it actually felt like building a company from a layoff with zero blueprint, why your first paying client does more to kill self-doubt than any amount of positive thinking, and why the people who "make it" aren't the most talented in the room — just the ones willing to look clueless in public long enough to stop being clueless.

If any part of this hit close to home, that's exactly the work we do inside the Pure Gold Business Workshop — live every Saturday at 11 AM Eastern. Save your seat: https://www.puregoldbusiness.com/workshop

If you're interested in working with Angelo, click below to book a strategy session and get started:

Book your strategy session here: https://www.puregoldbusiness.com/start

One of these seven stages is silently capping your growth. You might not even know which one.

Every business — no matter the industry, the revenue, the model — runs on the same map. Seven stages. Four pillars. Eight systems. And somewhere in that map, there is a gap. A place where leads fall off. Where clients don't close. Where revenue leaks without a clear reason why.

Most business owners respond by doing more. More content. More ads. More hustle. But more of the wrong thing doesn't fix a broken stage. It just burns more time and money getting to the same wall.

This episode is the diagnostic.

Angelo Cottingham walks you through the complete Pure Gold Business System Map — all seven stages from Lead Source to Retention — and shows you exactly how to identify which stage is holding your business back.

By the end of this episode, you will know:
 → What the four pillars of the Pure Gold Growth System are — and which one governs your biggest gap
 → All seven stages of the Business System Map and what each one is responsible for
 → How to run a self-diagnostic on your business and grade every stage honestly
 → Why the problem you think you have is probably not the problem you actually have

This is not a motivational episode. This is a working one.

If you're interested in working with Angelo, click below to book a strategy session and get started:

Book your strategy session here: https://www.puregoldbusiness.com/start

For five episodes, you've gotten the framework. Today you get the founder.

In this episode, Angelo Cottingham steps away from the pillars and the systems to share the story that built them — where he came from, what he lost, what he learned, and why Pure Gold Business Solutions exists.

You'll hear about his first real win as an entrepreneur with his clothing brand Merch Monarch, the loss that forced him to stop operating on default and start building with intention, and the years of deep study that turned personal experience into a proven system for business owners who are ready to grow.

This is the episode behind the framework.

In this episode:

• Why Angelo always knew he'd own a business — and why knowing wasn't enough
• His first lesson in marketing, revenue, and why systems beat hustle
• The loss that changed everything and what it forced him to face
• How he built the Pure Gold Growth System and why it works
• Where he is right now — and what Phase One looks like

If you're a business owner who's been working hard without the structure to match, this episode is for you.

Ready to see the full system in action?
Register for the Pure Gold Growth System Workshop — live, free, and built around your business.
👉 puregoldbusiness.com/workshop

If you're interested in working with Angelo, click below to book a strategy session and get started:

Book your strategy session here: https://www.puregoldbusiness.com/start

Most founders don't lose deals because their offer is weak. They lose them because they gave up too early.

In this episode, we go deep on Pillar Four — Sales — and break down the two systems inside it: Lead Management and Sales Acquisition.

You'll learn:

• Why most of your "dead leads" aren't dead — you just stopped showing up
• The difference between a contact, a lead, and a prospect (and why mixing them up is costing you)
• The Three-Touch Follow-Up Framework that converts without being annoying
• How to run a sales conversation like a diagnostic, not a pitch
• What objections actually mean — and how to walk through them instead of backing away

If you've ever followed up twice, heard nothing, and moved on — this episode is the system you were missing.

🎯 Join the free Pure Gold Growth System Workshop — June 20th
Everything from these five episodes comes together live, in real time, inside your business.
👉 http://puregoldbusiness.com/workshop

If you're interested in working with Angelo, click below to book a strategy session and get started:

Book your strategy session here: https://www.puregoldbusiness.com/start

Most business owners are focused on having the best product. But before your product matters — before your price, your reputation, or your reviews — you have to earn one thing first. Attention.

In Episode 4, Angelo breaks down why attention and money behave exactly the same way, why marketing consistently outperforms quality in the real world, and what it actually means to be a founder who lives inside their marketing — intentionally.

You’ll hear the story behind the faceless Instagram page Angelo never monetized — and the four things it forced him to learn about his audience that changed how he markets everything. Pain points. Desired outcomes. Identity. The moment.

Angelo also draws the line between branding and direct response marketing, explains the organic-to-paid bridge, and lays out the front-end vs. backend framework that ties your entire marketing operation together.

In this episode:
— Why attention follows the same rules as money: get it, keep it, leverage it
— How inferior businesses are eating the lunch of better ones right now
— The four audience insights that make content stop people mid-scroll
— Why paid ads are a scale tool, not a discovery tool
— Why “I’m not ready” is the sneakiest excuse founders tell themselves
— How strong marketing pre-sells your audience before they ever reach your sales process

Action step this week: Answer the four questions about your offer. What channels can you use to get attention? Can you make quick sales from that attention? Can someone impulsively buy what you’re selling? Do you need to be there personally to close?

Free live workshop — link in show notes. Angelo is walking through the entire Pure Gold Growth System live, with a VIP Q&A component. If this episode landed, that’s your next step.

Register at the link below:

https://40y1an.share-na2.hsforms.com/2kA86gwOASe68x5JJY1Ve8g

If you're interested in working with Angelo, click below to book a strategy session and get started:

Book your strategy session here: https://www.puregoldbusiness.com/start

Episode 3: "The Business That Runs Itself"

Most business owners are working in their business every single day — and don't realize that if they stepped away for 30 days, the whole thing would fall apart. That's not a hustle problem. That's a structure problem.

In Episode 3, Angelo Cottingham breaks down the Operations Pillar of the Pure Gold Growth System — the engine that turns a founder-dependent operation into a business that can actually run without you.

You'll learn:

• Why "the founder IS the system" is the most dangerous place to be as a business grows
• What Standardized Fulfillment really means — and how it ensures every client gets the same quality experience, every time
• How to treat your sales process like a system, not a personality
• The 70% Rule — and why chasing 100% is the fastest way to stay trapped in your own business
• How to write your first SOP (and why it's simpler than you think)

Angelo also shares a real story from his e-commerce brand, Merch Monarch — and exactly how a documented system produced his first sale, helped him spot a broken checkout page, and gave him the visibility to fix it fast.

If you've ever said "no one can do it like me" — this episode is for you.

Ready to build out your full operations system with the right structure and support? The Pure Gold Partnership Program is a 90-day engagement where Angelo and his team work directly with you. Book your discovery call — link in the show notes.

To get started on joining our Partnership Program, check out the link below:
www.puregoldbusiness.com/partnership

If you're interested in working with Angelo, click below to book a strategy session and get started:

Book your strategy session here: https://www.puregoldbusiness.com/start