Working Without Pants - Creative Entrepreneurship

If you're thinking about hiring a salesperson for your business, you NEED to give this episode a listen. Damian Thompson and I discuss the reasons behind why we cringe when someone says, "I've got a sales problem- so I'm going to hire a salesperson." This is the wrong mindset! Damian is the Founder & Chief Training Officer of Salesability. He's been involved in software services and consultative selling since the mid-to-late 90s, so he knows a thing or two when it comes to when, or why, you should be hiring a salesperson. He's always been "that" guy who was sent off to start selling and building a team in different locations around the world. He's helped countless amounts of people who were small business owners who didn't see themselves as a salesperson but needed to utilize sales to grow their business. Trust me when I say this episode is extremely important to listen to and will change your perspective when thinking about sales for your business. There's a robust amount of information here- everything from "why" you want to hire a salesperson, the misunderstandings people have about a salesperson's role in your business, to the processes you should have in place when hiring one. This is a subject I feel passionate about and hope you will find this truly useful for your business.

In this episode, I listen to the Founder and CEO of Campfire Labs, Michael Thomas, describe his entrepreneurial journey and I am blown away at his generosity and his frame of mind when it comes to giving back. Michael had a successful company that he decided to sell back in 2017, and because it was during a political turning point, he felt the need to help others so he pledged 25% of the proceeds to charitable causes. He then spent half a year volunteering with refugees in Greece, where he came to learn the lifestyle of people with difficult circumstances. About a year after returning from his volunteer work, Michael started his new company, Campfire Labs, a journalistic-style content agency. But he wanted to continue helping others, so Michael and his partner give 50% of Campfire's equity and profits to charitable causes. Tune into this episode to get some inspiring details about Michael's passion for giving to charity and how he did so. This interview won't let you down...

In this week's eye-opening episode, I dive into a great interview with Michael Zipursky, coach and CEO of Consulting Success. With a background in building and consulting businesses in North America and with multibillion-dollar businesses in Japan, he's developed a coaching program that began as a blog and then morphed into what is now helping hundreds of consultants build successful businesses by adding six to seven figures to their annual revenues. You may notice a familiar face here because I've interviewed Michael before. I've brought him back because recently his company conducted a Marketing for Consultants Study that I find fascinating and is full of valuable information and which marketing techniques can help build a successful business. In this detailed study, 34,000 consultants were surveyed to find out what is actually working in their marketing techniques- what tactics they're using and getting results from. The survey identifies and compares what high-performing consultants are doing vs low-performing consultants. Learn what the best practices are that we can all benefit from. For instance, what type of marketing works best and how much should you invest in marketing? Michael and I discuss in detail how you can shift your mindset for marketing costs from an expense to an investment. We'll dive into some data from the survey to help give you a better understanding of what others are "investing." We also explore network effects, the simplicity of a phone call, and other marketing tactics that you may or may not already be using. Where should you be putting your money in when it comes to marketing? Listen here to find out and explore more on the survey at https://www.consultingsuccess.com/marketing-for-consultants-study.

In this episode, I talk with Mary Ellen Slayter , CEO and team leader at Rep Cap, which is a content marketing agency that specializes in creating thought leadership, strategies, and plans for B2B industries. She is also the Publisher and Founder of ManagingEditor.com. Mary Ellen pursues most of her work in Insurance and HR Tech, but worked her way through her journalism career by writing for things like B2B newsletters, career advice columns, and as a finance editor. She has an understanding of large technical and financial terms and has a multitude of knowledge pulled from her professional experience and from her studies in college to get her degree. Mary Ellen has an edge that makes her stand out from others- she is comfortable writing content for her clients that most other writers want to stay away from. And after taking her own ideas and organizing them into processes through a project management tool, she's created a team of writers that have similar values on the quality of their writing. Each member of her team has a background in the field of expertise their clients are in, so being able to understand the jargon their clients use helps her team produce top notch content. No "content sludge" here! Join me here for some insight into how Mary Ellen helps sell the incredible ideas her clients come up with- and just how she is able to pull information from her smart, reserved clients. If you are looking for more information, please visit ManagingEditor.com.

In this week's episode, I sit down and have a very honest conversation with Franco Cabral , who is the CEO of inMark Media Group and owner of his personal brand at FrancoCabral.com. InMark Media Group helps small to medium sized businesses with their brand and advertising inside almost 700 supermarkets across the nation. In just three and a half years, Franco rapidly grew his sales team for inMark Media Group, but it took a lot more time and energy with his personal growth for him to get to where he is today. Franco had it all- or at least it would seem that way on paper, or looking from the outside in. However, it was only when he reached a pivotal moment that he realized how unhappy and unfulfilling life really was. In this episode, Franco shares his amazing story of how he went from studying to become a doctor, to working in sales and becoming a National Sales Director, and then building his own business by using his credibility and reputation within the field. Franco is someone I look up to and am always learning something from. I feel like I can relate to some of his story with personal growth and I hope this hits home for many of you. Join me in this open and honest episode that describes the process Franco entailed to get to his success today- success with his business and in his personal life. For anyone looking to hear more from Franco Cabral's podcast, please visit inMarkMG.com and click on the link to his podcast or you can find it as The Honest Liar Podcast.

In this noteworthy episode, I sit down with Devin Bramhall , Director of Marketing with Animalz, a content marketing agency that works with huge name customers. It was founded as a co-located company in NYC by a man named Walter Chen. Because the best talent isn't all in one location, the team has expanded to more than 35 people spread across the world who wanted both structure and freedom in their lives. Walter brought Devin and her team on to run this company, and by providing the space these leaders need along with a solid infrastructure in place, the business took off and major growth happened just within the last year. Quality work is so important in this business, so Animalz takes several approaches to be sure this can happen. They invest heavily in their people, within the company, and with their clients. For Animalz, it was important to create a repeatable structure to follow. And with training, a lot of investment into the clients, and digging into each subject matter, quality is then built into the process. Animalz will model their work as if they are embedded in each company, as a content marketer working there. They also do everything possible to align with the customer throughout the entire process. For anyone building up their agency, this is a great episode to listen to! Devin dives into the importance of having a repeatable process in place, keeping the creatives within your company motivated to produce high-quality work, and how to keep your clients engaged throughout the process. Hear how she ensures a relationship is built with the client and how to get them to commit to the process before even starting on content. Here we go…

On this episode, I speak with Jessica Mehring, CEO and Senior Copywriter at Horizon Peak Consulting, a content marketing agency that produces very technical and difficult work for companies focused on enterprise sales. Jessica started her copywriting career in the corporate world, and though she was good at what she did, she eventually hit a plateau, so she took the necessary steps to discovering exactly what her niche was. She is now an expert at what she does and has very high standards for her team and for the work her business provides to huge-brand clients. Horizon Peak Consulting offers each client a high level of trust and very high-quality work. Right off the bat, companies can see measurable results on her website, and with Jessica focusing on the end-customer, putting in the research needed and above-and-beyond efforts needed to be able to write superior quality content, she can help her clients hit their targeted goals and KPIs. Listen to this week's episode to hear how far Jessica has come in her career, as well as the specifics on Jessica's detailed onboarding process and how she sets expectations from the get-go.

In this week's episode, I talk with Nat Eliason, CEO & Founder of Growth Machine. Using a "systems-first" approach and by producing great content, he quickly grew this business from zero to 2 million ARR in less than 2 years and now has a 10-person team working around the U.S. Growth Machine is an SEO-focused content marketing agency that mostly works with eCommerce and tech companies by managing their blog content production. With ad costs increasing, more businesses are looking for someone who can create, optimize, and promote content, while also giving them the best chance of ranking high in Google searches. With high-quality writers that consistently meet deadlines and by following a very structured system, Growth Machine delivers great results for their clients. Listen in to hear a robust episode full of valuable information. Nat also wraps up with two important suggestions for anyone in the early stages of starting their own content business. Break out your notepad and pen for this one, folks!

On this week's episode, I speak with Jason Van Orden who calls himself a "thought leader business strategist"- essentially taking someone who is an expert in their field and turning them into a thought leader within that industry. Whether someone is already a thought leader and wants to grow what they have or someone who is just learning how to become a thought leader, Jason helps guide them by providing valuable marketing strategies to turn their stuff into digital assets. It's not about the latest, greatest tactic to get the attention of your target audience. It's about using a strategy to get you onto the correct platforms and using your unique voice within all of it, especially when there is so much noise on the internet. What will make you stand out and how do you make it clear who you are online? Jason shares here what the 3 R's are when trying to reach your goal audience and why they're so important. Tune in to listen to some great tips from Jason and what his thoughts and recommendations on how to market yourself using the right content and the right channels are. You can learn more about what Jason does through JasonVanOrden.com.

In this episode, I speak with Lacy Boggs , director of The Content Direction Agency -writing high quality content and creating bespoke content marketing strategies for online entrepreneurs.

Determined to stay home with her baby about 8 years ago, Lacy quit her regular job as a journalist, started writing a food blog and eventually started ghostwriting for some big authors. She has an amazing talent of being able to write content from each client's own tone of voice, so this led her to starting her own agency. She started as a solo freelance writer to growing into a team of 10 while only working 20 hours per week.

Listen here to learn all about how Lacy grew The Content Direction Agency, how her incredible team is able to produce content that is used to its full potential, and why the agency model was the better decision for her to scale her business.