The Rundown with Ramon - small business growth podcast for entrepreneurs

What if growing your business isn't about getting more followers, but building deeper relationships with the right people?

Sponsored by Verisign's YourDot.com

In this episode of The Rundown with Ramon, Ramon Ray talks with Jason, Editor-in-Chief of Entrepreneur, about digital marketing, personal branding, email newsletters, websites, AI search and speaking.

Jason explains why entrepreneurs shouldn't rush into paid advertising before understanding their audience and message. He makes the case for founder-led marketing and building trust over time.

The conversation dives especially deep into email newsletters. Jason shares how his newsletter has grown to roughly 84,000 subscribers and how it helps generate speaking engagements and other opportunities.

His simple formula:

Content builds trust. Trust builds relationships. Relationships convert.

Ramon and Jason also discuss why websites remain important as AI changes search, how businesses can create pages designed around highly specific customer questions, and why useful information builds more trust than constantly trying to sell.

Finally, Jason shares the strategy he used to grow as a speaker: get onto panels, become memorable, study audience reactions, develop your material and turn that experience into larger speaking opportunities.

A practical conversation for entrepreneurs, consultants, coaches, experts and speakers who want marketing that generates relationships, not just impressions.

Are you attending business events because they support a clear goal, or because everyone else seems to be going?

In this episode of The Rundown with Ramon, I’m breaking down two expensive mistakes: choosing the wrong events and attending the right events the wrong way. A popular conference can still be a poor fit for your business. Even the perfect room cannot help much if you arrive without a plan, hide with your friends, pitch too quickly, or fail to follow up.

I’ll share a practical before, during, and after event strategy for solo entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants, and small-business owners. You’ll learn how to define your objective, identify who needs to be in the room, calculate the true cost, research people in advance, prepare a clear introduction, ask better questions, capture useful notes, and follow up with relevance within 48 hours.

I’ll also explain how to measure an event by meaningful conversations, introductions, meetings, opportunities, and lessons instead of business cards or social-media photos.

If you have an event on your calendar and want help building a strategy around it, bring it to Ramon Office Hours. We can decide whether the event fits your goals, identify the people you should meet, and create a plan that helps you turn attendance into real business value.

What if your website traffic is falling, but your revenue is still growing?

In this episode of The Rundown with Ramon, Ramon Ray speaks with with marketing expert and SparkToro co-founder Rand Fishkin to explore how small businesses can succeed in a zero-click world.

Google, social media platforms and AI tools increasingly give people answers without sending them to a company’s website. Rand explains why fewer clicks do not necessarily mean fewer customers, and why website traffic should no longer be the only measure of successful marketing.

Ramon and Rand discuss:

• Why your best marketing strategy always depends on your audience
• What Google Analytics cannot tell you about potential customers
• Why business owners should spend more time talking directly with customers
• How to choose marketing channels that fit your strengths
• When referrals may work better than social media
• Rand’s three-circle framework for finding the right marketing approach
• What zero-click marketing means for small businesses
• Why your website, domain and email list still matter
• How AI tools use your website as a trusted source of information
• Why traffic can decline while revenue increases
• How being “weird and human” can help you stand out in an AI-driven world

Rand also explains why businesses should deliver useful information wherever their audience already spends time instead of withholding the value until someone clicks a link.

His final message is especially relevant in the age of AI: Don’t merely try to appear human. Embrace what makes you unusual, memorable and difficult to imitate.

If you are a business owner, marketer, consultant, creator or entrepreneur trying to reach more customers, this conversation will help you think differently about traffic, content, customer research and the future of marketing.

Learn more about Rand Fishkin and SparkToro at https://sparktoro.com/blog.

Did you know you can do so many things to have a better career in your job.

Not working in a job, have your own business?

These things can help you to build a better business.

Adapted from the Wall Street Journal, how can you improve your career and live a better life?

The rules of work in some way, are the same - be nice, be a good listener, etc.But in many ways, they've changed. How we look, what we talk about, how we network, so much has changed in the last few years.Today's Rundown with Ramon is going to be FUN and INFORMATIVE. Don't miss out.

Why do some great ideas inspire people to act while others get ignored, misunderstood or rejected?In this episode of The Rundown with Ramon, I sit down with author, researcher and speaker Tamsen Webster for a fascinating conversation about how ideas move from one person’s mind to another.Tamsen has spent decades studying change, communication and what she calls “idea transfer.” Her work examines how we can help people understand and genuinely adopt new ideas without relying on pressure, manipulation or coercion.We discuss why ideas frequently fail on first contact and the three obstacles that can stop an idea from gaining traction:1. Intelligibility: Can people understand what you are saying?2. Relevance: Can they see why it matters to them?3. Compatibility: Does it fit how they see themselves, their situation and the world?Tamsen also explains why entrepreneurs should stop trying to manufacture problems that customers do not recognize. An unanswered question that your audience already cares about can create a much stronger starting point.We explore the difference between self-promotion and self-presentation. Instead of constantly trying to convince people to hire you, what if you clearly presented what you believe, how you think and why your approach works?That allows the right people to recognize themselves in your ideas and decide whether they want to learn more.Tamsen introduces a simple communication structure that any entrepreneur can use:If X, then Y, because Z.The “because” matters. It gives people the reasoning behind your recommendation instead of merely telling them what to do.We bring this concept to life by comparing Dunkin’ and Starbucks. Both companies sell coffee, but each operates from a very different underlying idea. Dunkin’ treats coffee primarily as fuel that helps customers get moving quickly. Starbucks traditionally positions coffee as part of a broader experience. Those ideas influence everything from seating and service to branding and customer expectations.We also discuss how entrepreneurs should use artificial intelligence.Tamsen sees AI as a valuable thought partner, research assistant and processing companion. It can help you:• Organize a large collection of ideas• Identify patterns you may have missed• Find weaknesses in your argument• Anticipate objections• Compare your idea with what people normally expect• Challenge your assumptions before you launchHowever, AI produces answers based largely on existing patterns. It can show you expected connections you may have missed, but human beings still play an essential role in finding the unexpected connections and unexplored spaces where original ideas often live.One of my favorite takeaways from this conversation is Tamsen’s instruction to her AI: disagree with me until you can’t.Instead of asking AI to validate everything you say, ask it to challenge your reasoning. Ask what you may be missing, where someone could find fault with your idea and what evidence might prove you wrong.If you are an entrepreneur, creator, consultant, speaker or leader with an important idea, this conversation will help you communicate it more clearly, reduce resistance and give people a reason to act.What is one idea you believe could make a difference, and what might be preventing people from understanding it? Share it in the comments.Subscribe to The Rundown with Ramon for more practical conversations about entrepreneurship, business growth, leadership, marketing, technology and the human connections that make it all work.Powered by Verisign - https://YourDot.ComTamsen Webster - https://tamsenwebster.com/Ramon Ray - https://RamonRay.com

Running a solo business can feel busy every day while the most important financial and operational questions remain unanswered. In this episode, I’m going to help you replace vague business anxiety with a simple Monday-morning scorecard.

I’ll walk you through five numbers: the cash available in your business today, the money you realistically expect within 30 days, your unpaid and overdue invoices, your qualified sales opportunities, and your remaining capacity for additional client work.

For each number, I’ll explain what to include, what not to count, what warning signs to notice, and what action the number may require. We’ll talk about the difference between revenue and cash, why an impressive sales pipeline can still be weak, how late-paying customers affect your business, and why selling more can become dangerous when you ignore delivery capacity.

Use this episode to create your own one-page scorecard. Compare the five numbers with last Monday, then choose three actions you will complete this week. You might collect an invoice, follow up with qualified prospects, delay an expense, protect client-delivery time, or change your payment terms.

If you want help interpreting your numbers and deciding whether to focus on cash, sales, pricing, collections, or capacity, bring your scorecard to Ramon Office Hours. We’ll examine your specific business and work through the next move together.

Want to get more customers without spending more money on advertising?In this episode of The Rundown with Ramon, I share seven practical strategies small-business owners, coaches, consultants, and experts can use to generate more opportunities from the relationships, customers, content, and communities they already have.You’ll learn how to:• Reconnect with previous customers• Ask for specific introductions and referrals• Clarify an offer so people understand its value• Follow up without sounding desperate or annoying• Build strategic partnerships• Turn your expertise into customer-generating content• Become known and trusted in the right communitiesI also answer questions from the live audience and close with Headlines for Entrepreneurs, where we examine current business and technology news and what it means for business owners.Which of these seven strategies will you use first? Tell me in the comments.SUBSCRIBE for practical advice on growing your business, increasing your visibility, using technology wisely, and becoming the trusted expert in your market.

I’m going to challenge a habit that costs coaches and consultants hours every month: writing proposals for prospects who never established real buying intent.

In this episode, I explain how to identify the problem, urgency, decision-maker, investment range, and decision process before you create a custom proposal. I’ll also show you why every proposal needs a scheduled review, what prospect participation can reveal, and how your proposal-to-close rate can expose a qualification problem.

Use the episode to audit your current pipeline. Decide which opportunity deserves a proposal, which needs another conversation, and which one you should stop chasing. For hands-on feedback, bring your situation to Ramon Office Hours.

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AI is moving so fast that even people who work in the industry can't keep up with everything - and Cliff Worley says that's perfectly fine.In this episode of The Rundown with Ramon, I sit down with AI strategist, trainer and speaker Cliff Worley to talk about how entrepreneurs and business owners should actually approach artificial intelligence. We get beyond simply asking ChatGPT questions and dig into how AI can help with sales, meetings, email, marketing, data analysis, building software and improving the way your team works.One of my favorite ideas from Cliff is simple: don't try to transform your entire business with AI at once. Find one bottleneck and start there. What's consuming your time? What's slowing down your team? What process could become faster or smarter? Start experimenting with AI around that one problem and build from there.Cliff also shares why some of the most valuable AI experts inside a company may already be employees on your team, why businesses should encourage their people to have "AI playtime," and why he believes companies should use AI to make employees more capable instead of immediately looking for people to eliminate.But this conversation isn't only about AI.We talk about personal branding, entrepreneurship, taking risks, Cliff's experience working with Daymond John during the early days of Shark Tank, building an audience, why his speaking engagements grew his newsletter faster than hundreds of social videos, and why email is still king.And then we get into something I think is going to matter even more in the years ahead: human connection.As AI generates more content, more emails and more digital interactions, Cliff believes genuine relationships may become even more valuable. The goal shouldn't be to use AI so we can become machines. The goal should be to use AI to create leverage so we have more time for customers, family, friends, conversations and life.In this episode, we discuss:- Why it's okay to feel behind on AI- Cliff's concept of weekly "AI Playtime"- How to find the right first AI use case in your business- Using AI for sales calls, email, meetings and business analysis- Why your internal AI champion may already work for you- What Cliff learned working with Daymond John- Why email, websites and domain names still matter- How Cliff built his personal brand- Speaking versus social media for audience growth- AI search and the emerging importance of AEO- Why every entrepreneur should think like a publisher- Why AI should strengthen employees instead of automatically replacing them- Why human relationships may become more valuable as AI growsCliff Worley is an AI strategist and trainer who works with organizations and teams to help employees become more effective with tools including ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Microsoft Copilot.Learn more about Cliff at CliffWorley.com and subscribe to his AI Playtime newsletter at AIPlaytime.ai.Subscribe to The Rundown with Ramon for conversations about entrepreneurship, AI, marketing, leadership, personal branding and building a business that supports the life you want.

Hiring a virtual assistant can create leverage, but only when the owner provides a clear role, a workable process, and realistic expectations. In this episode, I’m going to show you how to identify the right tasks, choose three starting responsibilities, define decision boundaries, test candidates with paid work, and onboard the right person over 30 days.

I’ll also discuss worker classification, account security, confidentiality, and why the cheapest candidate may not create the greatest value. Most importantly, we’ll look at what you should do with the time you recover. Delegation only helps when you redirect that capacity toward selling, serving, creating, leading, or living.

Watch or listen with your current task list nearby. By the end, you should be able to identify one task to document today and a practical next step toward hiring support.