The Aspiring CMO

“The best marketers are great storytellers.” Greg’s journey started out in a very unconventional way, with no formal education or college degrees.

Today he runs Empire Flipper’s marketing and advertising channels and helps his team members become better marketers.

We talked about the common pitfalls marketers make and how to continue your marketing journey to become successful in the long run.

Remember: 

Anyone who’s in marketing you are the black sheep of the family. You are the LEAST understood and MOST IMPORTANT part of the company.

Keep listening to Greg and learn about his best advice for marketers and businesses.

✨ Episode Chapters:

2:00 Greg’s Marketing Journey in Alaska

8:44 Greg’s early days as an entrepreneur & marketer

10:50 From Writer to become the Head of Marketing

12:48 Why is it hard to be a marketer?

15:35 BIG Difference between Marketing vs Sales

16:10 Most marketing FAILS, WHY?

20:00 What does the Head of Marketing do?

24:15: Mistakes Greg made in his career

28:44 Economic Down Turn & AI Content Fear

31:30 Why Google won’t get rid of or “punish” AI content?

34:51 Why is Customer Avatar a waste of time?

39: 35 How to come up with the emotional punch line?

42:15 Greg’s No. 1 Advice for Aspiring CMOs

📔 Resources Mentioned

Empire Flippers

Plot & Structure by James Scott

Greg’s Book

🔗 CONNECT WITH Greg

👥 LinkedIn

💻 Facebook

📨 [email protected]

60% of writers are losing their jobs because of AI Content. ChatGPT has taken over, but is that the end of it?

I invited Ben Gorman, a professional copywriter and consultant, to break down how AI content can be both profitable and scalable for writers and editors too.

What Ben says is that writers who want to stay ahead of the game must learn how to “humanize” AI content.

How can you prompt and edit AI to write faster, better, and reach higher conversions?

Join Ben’s new AI Copy Editing Crash Course and make your job 100% more fun and valuable.
📚 AI COPY EDITING COURSE

✨ Episode Chapters:
0:57 Ben’s Journey to Online Writing

3:43 Ben’s initial marketing campaigns as a copywriter

5:12 Common copywriting mistakes

7:00 University Writing vs. Copywriting

7:45 STOP. WRITING. CONTENT.

8:51 If you are not as good as AI, you’ll lose your job.

11:21 AI forces you into adaptability

13:20 AI Copy Editing Crash Course

16:30 What content is mediocre?

18:19 Example copywriting for a lawnmower

20:00 Storytelling in content

22:11 You can’t edit well if you don’t know how to write.

23:31 Ben’s advice for aspiring high-level marketers

26:20 Ben’s advice for aspiring digital nomads

🔗 CONNECT WITH Ben Gorman

Join Ben’s Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/456311746622727

💻  https://www.aicopycrashcourse.com/

💼 Work with Ben

ps. This post contains affiliate links which means I earn a small commission from purchasing but it does not affect the final price of the product. Thank you for your support <3! 

“If you don't publish every week, people will forget who you are.” - Steve Toth.

Steve started SEO Notebook four years ago and never missed a week. His newsletter has close to 16,000 subscribers, and his career has been thriving in the digital marketing space ever since.

Steve and I chatted about his journey from being an SEO manager to becoming a successful entrepreneur and helping multiple companies scale using SEO.

Not only that, but he also shared super insightful pieces of advice for aspiring creators, CMOs, and entrepreneurs!

✨ Episode Chapters:

0:43 SEO Notebook and Freshbooks

2:10 How did SEO Notebook Start?

4:37 Consistency has a compounding effect

5:34 Steve’s advice on growing an e-mail list

7:34 Softwares Steve uses

8:24 What’s SEO IRL?

10:34 Give back to the community

14:15 How did Steve quit his job and THRIVE

17:14 Case Study: 50,000 visitors at Freshbooks

21: 31 Case Study 2: Verticalizing Keyword Across multiple industries

24:00 What does an SEO consultant do? Sneak peek into Steve’s work

25:30 Working with Clients or CMOs

27:00 Advice for new agencies and consultants

28:40 Steve’s advice for Aspiring CMOs

📚 Resources Mentioned

SEO Notebook

SEO IRL Conference

SEO Signals Lab

🔗 CONNECT WITH STEVE

👥 Linkedin

💻 Youtube

As part of my 3-day 30 reel challenge, I decided to compile videos into one single podcast episode.

To be honest, I could not reach the 30 videos in 3 days, BUT I produced more than half!

If you follow my social media channels, you can view the final videos there :)

Follow me on
Facebook: The Aspiring CMO
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theaspiringcmo/

Episode chapters: 
00:35 How to boost your online presence 
1:20 How to edit and promote a podcast alone 
2:13 3 Tips to grow an e-mail list 3:44 Best tip to record short-form videos 
4:22 SEO tips for newbies, and I see this over and over again... 
5:52 3 tips NOT to be replaced by AI 
7:11 How did I get an e-book done in less than 5 hours 
8:25 Social media marketing mistakes 
9:55 How to promote a new podcast 
11:28 Fave content creation tools that are not Canva 
12:45 Benefits of short-form video content 
14:00 MY answer to spam emails 14:53 How to start a youtube video as an introvert 
16:00 Video editing mistake 
16:46 Get your first SEO job

ps. THE ASPIRING CMO MADE IT TO EPISODE 10! It’s a personal milestone for me ❤️

“Your brand needs to be seen at least 7 times before people make a purchase.” Michelle Coyle. How often did you think you “should” start taking social media a little bit seriously?

I am not going to lie. SMM (social media marketing) can be frustrating and annoying when you don’t have the right content creator and manager behind it.

So, in this episode, I invited Michelle Coyle, the Founder of Beechtree Marketing. Her story is very inspiring as she started as a freelance graphic designer and built up her social media agency from there.

She is also balancing motherhood and business life in New Jersey and still makes time for business networking to get clients and referrals for her business.

If you liked this episode, make sure you give us a review or subscribe to the channel ❤️

✨ Episode Chapters:

1:20 How Michelle Pivoted in her Career 2x

3:00 Peek into a Social Media Marketing Agency

4:30 “AI Taking over jobs” from Michelle, who went through ‘08 and COVID…

6:36 AI Prompt Engineering

8:40 Digital vs. Traditional Marketing

9:20 Michelle’s Agency

11:00 Organic marketing then paid

13:00 How does Michelle find clients?

16:40 What is reputation management?

20:00 AI can take over, and be careful about this!

24:00 Hashtag Research

25:30 Why LinkedIn is COOL?

28:07 Michelle’s experience working with CMOs

28:56 What is Michelle’s advice for 20somethings to become successful?

30:02 Motherhood and Running a Business

🔗 CONNECT WITH MICHELLE

👥 https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellencoyle/

💻 https://beechtreemarketing.com/

In this episode, I talked to Mads Singers, a successful management coach and expert in using the DiSC framework to identify individuals' personal strengths and weaknesses. Mads has successfully applied DiSC to scale his clients' businesses from 5 figures to 8. 

The best part is that he never uses traditional DiSC tests, he observes through our body language! His secret now is no longer just for him because he created DiSC For Teams, a brand new SaaS tool for businesses to identify their employee's and managers' strengths.

Join us in this conversation, and let's pick Mads' brain together. Maybe, you will understand yourself better, too. 

https://discforteams.org/ 

Episode Chapters:
0:57 How is Mads a world traveler? 

2:18 What’s DiSC?

3:25 How does Mads identify personality types?

5:27 Examples where the client succeeded with DiSC

8:35 Meaning of each letter D-I-S-C

14:47 What’s the best personality type for CMOs?

17:37 How to use DiSC to understand CUSTOMERS or CLIENTS? $$$

21:39 Real Marketing case study 

25:38 How to avoid hiring someone like yourself?

26:43 Should you give prospects a DiSC test?

27:37 DiSC for teams

28:30 Why Ani loves DiSC?

29:30 STOP fixing shit you are bad at.

31:40 Why should high C’s push to be more sociable?

35:20 Mads Management course vs Management course in university

36:36 Who is a good leader?

39:50 Mads identifying Ani 4 years ago 👀

40:39 Primary vs. Secondary Traits

📚 Resources Mentioned

Try out DiSC for Teams

Mads Singers Management Training

🔗 CONNECT WITH Mads Singers

👥 https://www.linkedin.com/in/madssingers/

💻 madssingers.com 🎧 Management Podcast

📲 Mads Singers Facebook

How would you convince people to come to a luxury resort in the middle of the Great Recession? In this episode, I talked with Courtney Smith, an online entrepreneur, triathlete, and mother who does it all!

Courtney started law school in her 20s but never finished her education because she was already busy being the Marketing Director of a luxury resort in AZ, USA.

How did she get to that stage? Make sure you listen to the full episode (ps. use the episode chapters :P )!

Her story is beyond inspiring for women, parents, young people, and any ambitious human who wants to start a business.

✨ Episode Chapters:

2:30 Dropping Law School to Start Marketing

4:07 $350M Project in 2008 Financial Crisis - Case Study

7:40 Do ChatGPT make writers lose their jobs?

8:30 Preparing for the future, knowing AI is advancing

10:41 Starting an online business in 2009 😰

11:14 Courtney’s early days in business: fails & lessons

16:31 How to find clients?

18:09 People don’t know SEO 😇

19:50 How to deal with different clients?

23:50 The most important thing in a client relationship

24:12 SEO tips for local businesses

26:50 Marketing is expense and cost

28:31 Courtney’s reflection on growing OVER TIME.

29:58 ENTREPRENEUR LESSON 👉🏼 YOU 👈🏼NEED TO KNOW.

32:34 STOP comparing yourself.

33:30 Successful people DO THIS.

🔗 CONNECT WITH Courtney

👥 Instagram: @smithcourtneymarie

💻 https://www.youtube.com/@Smithcourtneymarie
📱 https://www.facebook.com/smithcourtneym

Subscribe: The Aspiring CMO

Links are the currency of the internet. A link from one website to another could cost between $30 to $1000+ if you understand their market value and how link building actually works.

In this episode, Patrick Rice, SEO consultant and owner of Linkable Commerce, sat down with me and explained how he started in SEO and started his own link building agency in his early 20s.

Now his business is growing rapidly to serve  20 clients a month. 🤯

Patrick started in the digital marketing space back in 2012. His channel has over 5,000 subs, and his video got over 3 million views.

But… how did he go from these results to building and owning a business?

Subscribe to The Aspiring CMO

✨ Episode Chapters:

1:30 How a 13-year-old went Viral on YouTube

4:00 Landing his first job in an SEO agency

5:55 Daily job of an SEO in an agency

6:40 Start freelancing after 1 year of experience

7:52 What is link building, anyways?

10:00 Website Authority 101

12:15 Simple link building agency organization

13:15 Do you need AI for Link Building?

14:00 How to personalize emails for link building?

15:30 Patrick’s $$$$ CLIENT

18:35 How to find clients?

20:00 How to convert leads to clients?

23:00 Dropping College for Business

24:15 Fundamentals of Marketing from a successful marketer

28:40 What should you start TODAY as an Aspiring CMO / Digital business owner

29:40 Tips to “build in public”

🔗 CONNECT WITH Patrick Rice (Apply on his LinkedIn)

🌐 https://patrickriceco.com/

🎬 https://www.youtube.com/@patrickrice411/featured

📲 https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-s-rice/

Kat Tierney started her first website in 2007 and made money online (before it was mainstream)! She has helped several clients as an SEO freelancer and agency owner, and now she is an SEO Manager at an Enterprise SEO Agency. So, could you imagine how much experience she has in digital marketing? A LOT!

We go over how she started her career, what MISTAKES businesses make on their websites, how Kat uses AI, and what Aspiring CMOs should takeaway after this episode!

Kat is a super cheerful, fun, and very experienced digital marketer, and her path really shows: Don’t wait for a job to tell you what to do. If you want to learn digital marketing, start a website.

📽️ Subscribe to The Aspiring CMO!

✨Episode Chapters:

1:47 How did Kat Start SEO in 2007?

2:58 Kat’s first online business

3:48 Starting an SEO Agency and turning into full-time SEO

5:00 Hiring as a new entrepreneur

8:11 Stop making this mistake on your website!

10:50 How to avoid bullsh!t from “social media experts”?

13:30 Don’t write for “the user”.

15:09 How to get more attention on social media?

15:44 You need to try this AI tip!

17:32 Marketing Team Structure in an Enterprise-Level SEO Agency

19:26 What does a Chief Marketing Officer do in an Enterprise lvl SEO Agency?

21:49 Working in a Big Company vs. Your Own Business

25:05 You can design your own life.

25:38 Overcome hardships

27:35 Advice for people in their early 20s.

28:40 MESSAGE FOR EVERY ASPIRING CMO

📚 Resources Mentioned

Mastermind Mansion SEO Conference / Event

🔗 CONNECT WITH KAT:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karintierney/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karinalzinatierney

Vincent Nguyen, the former Marketing Director of Empire Flippers, now spends his days exploring and building AI tools with no coding knowledge! Since ChatGPT came out, Vincent has built two AI tools for his Facebook ads agency, Growth Ninja, and one for his friends and family.

He also left valuable advice for young people in their 20s who are just starting their careers!

Oh, btw did you know he quit college?!

Make sure you skip to the good parts using the chapters below:

💫 Episode Chapters:

2:00 From a 19-year-old Intern to Marketing Director

4:50 Surround yourself with SMART people

7:40 What did Vincent do as a Marketing Director?

8:55 How did Vincent start his company?

10:32 Facebook Ads from a Facebook Ads Expert

12:30 Using ChatGPT, Building AI Tools during Vincent’s 2-Month Attention Policy

20:00 Don’t fix mistakes!

20:34 Vincent’s advice for people who are starting out

21:20 Stay with the hard work!

22:00 How did Vincent Get the Job at Empire Flippers?

25:00 ADHD To Your Advantage

29:00 Learn to prioritize with ChatGPT (when feeling overwhelmed)

32:02 Getting over FOMO (from social media hype!)

36:10 Abundance Mindset vs. Spamming Social Media

37:12 Beginners Position Themselves as Experts

40:30 Don’t be too quick to recommend people

46:25 Vincent’s Biggest Takeaway for our Listeners ☺️

Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgyKDRc_Yveqoadvc9HQGNg

Watch Vincent’s Application Video for Empire Flippers (9 YEARS AGO!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3t1xrmK_gI&t=47s

🔗 CONNECT WITH Vincent

💻 Growth Ninja Facebook Ads Agency

👥 Vincent Nguyen’s LinkedIn