I have decided that when the opportunity presents itself, I will use video for some of my interviews. A couple of weeks ago I was in Boulder Co for the annual Duct Tape Marketing coaches gathering and we had a few really good speakers. Lesa Snider, who I have met before, is a really good presenter. She is an evangelist for iStockPhoto.com and is the author of Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manualso is the perfect person to talk about the best use of graphics in business presentations.

If like me, you suffer from PowerPoint bullet addiction, you will get a lot out of this interview! Frankly I think we have all sat through some pretty boring presentations that don't connect with our needs or interests so hopefully this interview will begin a movement to turn things around.

Her website as mentioned in the video is www.graphicreporter.com and if you go there you will find all kinds of interesting resources. She also has a series of video tutorials which you can find at www.lynda.com.

Note: this is the first video I have posted on Podbean and it doesn't seem to be working very well. I have also posted the video on my small business blog so you might want to take a look there instead. That seems to be working better.

In this interview with Kurt Johnson, one of the founders of PostcardBuilder.com, you will learn a number of direct mail tips that will be useful as you consider your marketing mix. Kurt shares with us his thoughts on when to use direct mail as well as how to create a successful direct mail campaign. As it's name would suggest, PostcardBuilder.com specializes in the production of postcard direct mail campaigns so Kurt also talks about the application of postcards.

I recently had the opportunity to interview John McDonagh, the publisher of the Vancouver Business Journal. John is a great guy with an interesting perspective on publishing and on local business. You won't want to miss this one.

Perhaps of surprise to some business owners is that the Vancouver Business Journal wants to hear from you when you have news of interest to their readers. Unfortunately that does not include your special offers for Mother's Day but it does include local angles to national stories, significant new sales orders, people news and other topics. To get the full list you will have to listen to the interview.

Of extra bonus is that to me he also sounds a little bit like Sean Connery. I'm not sure why as he isn't Scottish (he's of Irish descent) but there is something in his voice that evokes the Highlands. Perhaps I'm just losing my tenuous touch with reality or am in need of a vacation!

Don't forget to visit the Vancouver Business Journal website to sign-up for their e-newsletter or to perhaps like me, to get your subscription to the printed paper.

The Sales and Marketing Doctors are in session and many people were brave enough to put themselves on the examination table.

Join myself and Jeff Schneider of Sandler Training for the first in a series of Sales and Marketing Podcast interviews recorded live and answering questions from the audience. Questions included:

I do best when I have the opportunity to meet face-to-face with potential customers, yet I'm finding it increasingly difficult to get prospects to agree to a meeting. What strategies can I employ to increase my success rate in getting appointments?

I find that when I meet with someone, I always give them the courtesy of speaking without interruption. How do I reasonably set up my prospect's expectations for the first meeting - in advance, so I can maintain SOME control over the meeting?

Without a lot of knowledge on the subject I am looking for a CRM software that I can us to track customers and sales information. Do you have any recommendations?

How can we make sure everyone reflects and refers our business to others?

And many more

Please join us for session two where we will answer your marketing questions on December 17th at 10:00 AM PST. Click here to register.

If you want to contact myself or Jeff you can do so at our main websites of:

Michael: http://www.marketaccelerators.com

Jeff: http://schneider.sandler.com/

Its almost time for the holidays so this interview with Cindy Anderson, author of the Portland Happy Hour Guidebook is great timing. I had a fun time talking with Cindy about why and how she wrote the book. She also tells us about the process of book publishing which may be helpful for those of you in the process of writing your own best seller.

So, sit back, grab a cocktail and listen to your own personal guide to the Portland Happy Hour Guidebook.

And don't forget to visit the Portland Happy Hour Guidebook website at http://www.happyhourguidebook.com. This is the place to go if you would like to take advantage of Cindy's book specials and read her blog.

In this interview with my guest Casey Boggs, President of LT Public Relations, we learn:

What is PR

With the decline in the national media, why is PR still important

Examples of good PR campaigns

How to know if your PR is working

Top tips to successful PR

Should you be controversial to get PR?

PR trends

Casey has spent more than 12 years in market communications working with a variety of companies in different industries. He has helped develop some of the largest public relations and advertising campaigns in the financial services, consumer and technology industries including PR Week's 2004 Campaign of the Year. At LT Public Relations, Casey oversees the strategic public relations efforts for national and local banks, credit unions, financial planners/investors, insurance companies and law firms.

Before forming LT Public relations, Casey managed many accounts for two of the worlds largest public relations agencies, Waggener Edstrom and Weber Shandwick.

Don't forget to visit his interesting public relations blog. he can also be reached by phone at 503-477-9215.

Marketing Plan Pro is now powered by Duct Tape Marketing. For a limited time you can buy it for $25 off!

If you have any interest in developing a sales prospecting plan then you are going to love this interview. Jeff Schneider from Sandler Training has given us a boat load of practical tips covering goal setting, networking, strategic partnerships, referrals and lots more.

If you would like to contact Jeff you can call him on (971) 227-3266 or contact me and I will give you his e-mail.

The Oregon Chapter of the American Marketing Association had it's Annual Conference recently and one of the morning keynote speaker was Andy Sernovitz, author of "Word of Mouth Marketing". I managed to borrow Andy for a 20 minute interview after his presentation.

Andy has become an expert in pairing what is essentially referral marketing with Web 2.0 technology. With todays internet social networks, news can travel fast. If you have something that captures the interest of connected people, they share the information with each other in a viral manner. Andy's methodology is that you should:

1) Find the people who will talk about you (not necessarily your customers - influencers also)

2) Give them a reason to talk

3) Give them the tools that help spread the message more quickly

4) Join the conversation and

5) Measure and track what people are saying.

(taken from www.wordofmouthbook.com)

This process is ideal for small business as many of the techniques are inexpensive. The main requirement is creativity and sometimes a willingness to step out on the ledge! Andy also has a consulting company called GasPedal

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Do you worry about whether you should spend resources on marketing during a recession? A small business owner recently expressed this concern to me.

Some people see marketing as an expense but when you think about it, marketing is ultimately intended to help grow the business. It is an investment with an expected return. You can't grow without marketing. That means in a recession if you want to maintain or grow revenues, you still need marketing. It is true that some marketing activities have a long term pay off but I would argue that most of these activities are the domain of larger companies. The marketing investment of small businesses usually have to pay for themselves more quickly.

In this interview with John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing and author of the book "Duct Tape Marketing", John tells us that “The only thing you should do in good times or in bad times is the right thing. It is just that bad times have a way of getting your attention”. Never is this more true of marketing. So, kick back, forget worrying about a recession (if there even is one) and listen to this informative podcast.

In this interview, Phil Bernstein from Clear Channel gives us some immensely practical advice for effective advertising. Phil has been in radio for over 13 years and has witnessed many advertising mistakes which he talks about here. Some of them will make you wince.

Phil has a white paper called "Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them". You can get your own copy by visiting www.fixadmistakes.com

What other topics would you like to see in these podcasts? Any suggestions on other people to interview?