Podcast
The Idea Climbing® Podcast
Hosted by Mark J. Carter · EN
If you’re passionate about bringing your big ideas to life and want actionable strategies for marketing, branding, sales, mentoring, networking and more this show is for you! You’ll learn from interviews with successful B2B thought leaders and entrepreneurs.
27episodes
Episodes
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How to Successfully Build and Scale Your Service Business with Rick Elmore
5d ago00:26:56Tap to summarizeThere’s an art and a science to scaling your service business. A big part of it is learning to work on your business and not in your business. I discuss how to do that with my guest, Rick Elmore. Rick Elmore is the Founder and CEO of Simply Noted, a technology company helping businesses build stronger relationships through automated handwritten communication powered by real pen and ink.     A former college and professional football player turned entrepreneur, Rick has combined his background in sales, marketing, and relationship-building to create one of the fastest-growing handwritten outreach platforms in the world. We dive into topics including: Rick’s early days in sales that lead to his multi-million-dollar discovery. The importance of getting the right people in the right seats of your business. How to work on your business instead of in your business. Where and when Rick started working on his business instead of in his business. Your life cycle as an entrepreneur from inception to scaling your business. The importance of building an ecosystem of trust in your business and how to do it. What you need to do next after you build the core team of your business. How to scale your marketing initiatives. How to keep your sanity when you’re scaling as an owner/operator. The importance of discipline and how to develop it. Why scaling is a lifelong journey that never ends. The one thing, above all else, that you need to do to successfully scale your service business. …and other golden nuggets of advice! Rick’s Origin Story Rick has a pretty unique background. He was an athlete growing up. He played college and professional sports, even though athletics didn’t come to naturally to him. Athletics was something that Rick was able to be successful at because he was a hard worker and didn’t overextend himself. A lot of people discredit what you can get done in 10 years versus all the pressure they put on themselves to get done in a year. Rick had 15 years of experience working on not overextending himself before he became an entrepreneur. Rick made it to the NFL in 2010, but he was an athlete for a long time before that. His first year in the NFL he was playing for the Cleveland Browns, and he was with one of the back office people. They showed me his draft profile and it said, “This guy plays above his potential, is an overachiever, and wins with effort.” Back then he used to think that was like a stab. But now, being 38 years old, Rick looks back and he believes that all of those were his strengths. He used that and leveraged his ability to keep working hard to push on and persevere through any of life’s problems. Then five years in the NFL Rick went back and got his MBA. He was a typical B or C student; nothing special as he recalls. His mindset was that he was just there to memorize stuff and take tests. But he fell in love with learning because he was passionate about and interested in business. He wanted to learn how to start a business. He wanted to learn about what made businesses work even though he was completely green in the entrepreneurship space. When Rick went into sales that was one of the turning points in his life. Life After Sports Because he found something he was interested in, it became a lot easier to dedicate his life to it after sports. He had a marketing professor that said something that changed his life. About a year into his program, the professor said that handwritten mail had a 99% open rate. Rick realized that if you got something in the mail, and it was handwritten, you were going to open it. He grew up in the nineties, when people used to write notes to their friends. It became a lost art over time. BUT there was no way to like do it efficiently at scale. It took Rick a lot of time to sit down and write a holiday card to each of his clients and put them in envelopes. Rick started researching and there was a technology called a “pen plotter” out at that time. It had no paper feed, no technology behind it. He got it from China, built it and went to his friends and said “Hey, this is my idea. Can you help me?” He knew nothing about software, nothing about software integrations and software coding. Rick’s a-HA! Business Scaling Moment But he DID know that if his idea could be flushed out there would be an opportunity for a business because nobody else was doing it. Rick made it work. He created 500 handwritten notes using that simple handwriting robot and sent them out to clients and prospects. The response rate was amazing. Many of his clients and prospects were doctors and many of them responded to his note that it helped Rick bypass his $50,000 a month quota. Rick made over $270,000 in sales. That was the most money he had ever made. He laughed because people think just because he was in NFL, that he made a lot of money, which is not true. Only about 1% of the athletes who go to the NFL make all the money that you think they do. The CEO of his company took notice of the results Rick was getting. When he met Rick, he said “Keep doing whatever you’re doing. It’s working.” Rick figured if the CEO is noticing what he’s doing, it had to mean he was on to something. The Payoff for Scaling His Business the Right Way Rick says he was a football player and a sales and marketing guy who started a robotics/engineering automation business with zero experience. But he wouldn’t have been able to get to over $10 million in revenue, with multi-seven-figure a year runs in business, if he hadn’t gotten the right people in the right seats and built the right systems for scaling everything he was doing. Rick says you can’t just focus on one thing. You must scale your marketing, get the leads, and then scale the team to close the leads. After that you must scale your production. And that was a process. Rick believes what most entrepreneurs do wrong is getting stuck working in their businesses instead of working on their businesses. It was time for Rick to start working on his business. That is just the beginning! Watch or listen to the interview for the rest of the story and more golden nuggets of advice! You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”     About My Guest Rick Elmore is the Founder and CEO of Simply Noted, a technology company helping businesses build stronger relationships through automated handwritten communication powered by real pen and ink. A former college and professional football player turned entrepreneur, Rick has combined his background in sales, marketing, and relationship-building to create one of the fastest-growing handwritten outreach platforms in the world. Founded in 2018, Simply Noted helps companies scale authentic, personalized communication through proprietary technology that integrates handwritten notes into modern sales and marketing systems. Under Rick’s leadership, the company has worked with businesses across industries including real estate, insurance, hospitality, nonprofit, franchise, and B2B organizations. Before launching Simply Noted, Rick played football at the University of Arizona and spent time in the NFL before transitioning into medical sales and entrepreneurship. Today, he is known for his expertise in relationship-driven marketing, customer retention, and helping businesses stand out in an increasingly automated world. Click here to learn more about...
Transcribe →How to End Self-Sabotage and Boost Self-Confidence with Dr. Robyn Lynette
2w ago00:25:55Tap to summarizeEntrepreneurs face self-sabotage more than most people. We can also experience powerful self-confidence when we have the right strategies. I discuss how to overcome self-sabotage and replace it with life-altering self confidence in this episode with my guest, Dr. Robyn Lynette. Dr. Robyn is an executive strategy partner who has spent nearly two decades working privately with CEOs and founders during the highest-stakes moments of their professional lives.     Drawing on business and sport psychology, she identifies the hidden patterns that can quickly undermine decision-making and leadership at the top, where the pressure is high and the margin for error is thin. The leaders she works with aren’t looking for help; they’re looking for an edge. She’s also the author of the memoir I’d Like to Thank the Cartel for Getting Me Out of a Cult. We dive into topics including: Why playing competitive sports helped form Robyn’s mindset for success in all areas of life. How your brain can either help or hinder you. Specific examples of the best way your brain can help you. The unfortunate reality of our “Fight or flight” response and how to overcome it. The power of intuition and what it really is. Examples of what happens when you ignore your intuition. Where self-sabotage comes from and why it’s there. How to recognize self-sabotage and stop it in its tracks. What your logical brain needs to do to step in and “save the day” on bad days. How to build mental habits to automatically break your stream of self-sabotage. Why people stay stuck in self-destructive or self-sabotaging habits. The definition of self-confidence. Where building self-confidence starts and what it looks like. Examples of confident behaviors and how to develop them. The all important role of self-talk in your life, especially when it comes to self-confidence. The origin of self-fulfilling prophecies and how to create good ones. How to change negative emotions when you realize you’re feeling them. How to maintain self-confidence over time even on the “down days”. The role your logical brain plays when combined with your emotional brain. The one thing, above all else, that you need to do to end self-sabotage and boost self-confidence. …and other golden nuggets of advice! Robyn’s Introduction to Self-Sabotage and Self-Confidence Robyn’s story goes back to when she used to play competitive beach volleyball. There were some days when she could get on the court and just nail it; she felt like a phenomenal volleyball player. And then there were other days when she would get on the court and her partner would hold out a volleyball and ask, “Robyn, this is a volleyball. Have you ever seen one before?” Robyn wondered, “Where did my game go?” Because of that, Robyn’s interest was sparked. She had the opportunity in college to study high performance people and how and why they achieve more than the general population. The thing that she noticed was that across all professions, whether you’re in business, sports, or the military, is how your brain can either help you or hinder you. She likes to joke and say, “Whether you’re using your brawn or your brain, your brain is still gonna be in the way.” Your Brain Can Help or Hinder You… It’s Your Choice! Obviously, your brain can help with critical thinking. For example, we can manage stress and override our fight or flight response. You probably know that in the modern world; we’re constantly in fight or flight mode. Because of that we have all hormones that are constantly flooding our brains; for better or worse. If you’re going to succeed, you must be able to set that mode aside and realize, “I know I’m not being chased by a saber tooth tiger; I can do this.” Doing that starts to help. The hinder part, or problem, is if you’re constantly overcoming fight or flight and pushing down that fear, you’re also eliminating your gut instinct and your intuition. Things like those that can help you get pushed down because you’re in fight or flight mode. Which leads us to intuition… Entrepreneurs and Intuition Intuition is an interesting phenomenon. There’s a lot of science around it that talks about how intuition is your sunconscious picking up on patterns before your logical mind recognizes them. Which means your emotional brain is the part of your brain that makes you think of the perfect thing to say 20 minutes after the argument. That’s the part of your brain that was overriding things. If you want that intuition to come through, you must listen to your emotional, or subconscious part of your brain. So many of us are ignoring it, and we’re all in critical thinking mode most of the time. That’s what keeps us awake at 3:00 AM because we’re thinking of all the things that we didn’t share when we had the opportunities to do so during the day. You should make time during the day to listen to that part of your brain. There are many ways you can do that. It could be meditation. Robyn believes meditation is an excellent practice. But she gets a lot of people telling her that they don’t have time to meditate. Connecting with and Listening to Your Intuition Maybe for you it’s when you’re driving in the car, you leave the radio off, so you don’t have that extra input. Then your subconscious brain has a chance to bubble to the surface. Maybe for you, it’s working with someone, whether it’s a coach, therapist, strategic business partner or someone like that who talks through that stuff with you. That can trigger the part of your brain that brings up with intuition. At the end of the day, it comes down to making time to actively listen to your thoughts. Then there’s the other side of the coin. You’ve probably had this happen to you. You have an intuition (or gut feeling), you ignore it, and then you wonder “Why did I ignore that?” It’s when you’re walking out the door and you’re thinking, “I know I’m forgetting something”, and you get 10 minutes down the road, and your brain reminds you about what you forgot. Then you have to turn around and go get it. That happens when you’re not making time for your subconscious, emotional brain to bubble to the top. Your intuition can actually speak to your logical brain and prevent problems like that. That is just the beginning! Watch or listen to the interview for the rest of the story and more golden nuggets of advice! You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”     About My Guest Dr. Robyn Lynette, an executive strategy partner, has spent nearly two decades working privately with CEOs and founders during the highest-stakes moments of their professional lives: funding rounds, major exits, board crises, fraud inside the leadership team, restructuring, and the quieter weight that comes with making decisions no one else can make. With a background in business and sport psychology she works with leaders to identify the hidden patterns that undermine decision-making, relationships, and performance at the top —where the pressure is high and the margin for error is thin. The leaders who work with Dr. Robyn aren’t looking for help. They’re looking for an edge: the ability to think clearly under pressure, communicate with authority, and lead with greater influence and self-trust. She is also the author of the memoir I’d Like to Thank the Cartel for Getting Me Out of a Cult, which explores the personal experiences that shaped her approach to resilience, leadership, and human behavior. <a href="https:/...
Transcribe →How to Package and Price Your Service Offering with Alex Shartsis
3w ago00:24:40Tap to summarizeHow to package and price your service offering are difficult decisions to make. Most entrepreneurs wrestle with them for years. I discuss how to do it faster and more effectively with my guest, Alex Shartsis. Alex is a multi-exit founder and go to market strategist who has led go-to-market at venture-backed startups including Drawbridge, acquired by LinkedIn, and TripIt, acquired by Concur, and ran corporate development at Opendoor.     Today he’s the co-founder and CEO of Skyp — an AI-powered outbound email platform that helps founders and sales teams book more meetings without hiring an sales development representative. He built Silverwood Advisors, an advisory practice focused on GTM strategy, into a go-to resource for teams in Silicon Valley and beyond. We dive into topics including: The difference between charging hourly, project-based, or retainer pricing options. Where to start when you’re packaging a service. The importance of understanding your clients’ needs before determining pricing models. How to make promises that you can follow through on. The importance of setting expectations before the sale and how to do it. How to do research about how to price your service offering. The importance of having a deep understanding of your clients’ business models. How to position yourself for success in the marketplace. Why most service providers underprice themselves and what to do about it. Why pricing low to win business rarely works. How to pick the most profitable target markets. The one thing, above all else, that you need to do to package and price your services successfully. …and other golden nuggets of advice! Living in the Startup World Alex has worked with a lot of startups, at least 20 or 30 at this point. He prefers early-stage startups where he must figure out their product market fit and figure out what their customers want. Alex has been advising and selling consulting services for six years now, and he’s become great at packaging his own service as a result. In addition, he’s spoken with many other consultants about how they package themselves successfully. Alex has ended up with a wealth of knowledge that he never intentionally set out to get; but he’s grateful to have it now. The Origin of How Alex Packaged His Service Offerings and What You Can Learn from His Experience For Alex, it’s a funny story. Originally Alex wasn’t looking to get into consulting. He had just left his startup, and it was a rough time. A venture capital friend asked Alex to become an advisor to one of his companies. Even though he was planning to take some time off, Alex agreed. Alex spoke with friends who were in the consulting world. One had only done consulting throughout his entire career. His advice to Alex was to charge $300 an hour. The challenge with that was that startup founders often don’t know how many hours they need. More Ideas and Suggestions for Fee Structures Alex continued his conversations. Next, he spoke with people that worked only on project-based fee structures. He liked that because he believes people don’t want the surprises that come from charging hourly rates. It can hurt your relationships if the hours go over the amount initially proposed. The project-based work they discussed involved payment at certain milestones. When you hit a milestone with your clients, they pay you $10,000 and so on. That structure aligns the work with the results. And then the third fee structure Alex discovered was the retainer-based model. For example, he would charge $10,000 a month for one day a week, and $20,000 a month for two days a week. Then there was the option for $30,000 to have Alex for a full week. Alex realized was that he had a strong opinion after having been a founder who hired consultants, and that was that. Immediately, he didn’t want to underprice. He believed the biggest risk he faced was underpricing his time. And second, he wanted to make sure he didn’t get stuck in a cheaper-will-get-you-more-clients mindset. He didn’t want to be the poor salesperson who drives a Honda Accord, who asks “Why would you ever spend $150,000 on a car?” Thinking that way is self-defeating when it comes to pricing your services. If you put yourself in your buyer’s shoes, they may have a completely different perspective of budget and value than you do. Value and budget are equally important. Alex didn’t want to make that mistake and didn’t want to have to track his hours as the sole way of delivering value. He notices that the consultants that took the hourly route were working with founders who had lots of different things going on and needed a variety of consulting services. An hour here for this project; an hour there for another project. More Decisions About Pricing Models For example, if Alex took the hourly route and asked a client to review his work on their website and then move onto the next step, if it took the client two weeks to get to the next step he couldn’t bill them anything for two weeks because he was waiting for them to review the web site. In that case you must track your billing and you’re at the mercy of wondering if your client will do the thing they said they were going to do (and in a timely manner). In that scenario you can’t send them an invoice that month because they didn’t follow through. So, the retainer model was what Alex decided to go with, at a price point that he initially thought he would have never paid at that rate when he was a founder. But now, looking back on it, Alex says he probably would have in the end because he realized that it reduced the risk for him as a founder. With the retainer model he gradually increased his retainer as he had more clients. And that is just the beginning! Listen to or watch the interview to continue this story and get more golden nuggets of advice! You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea” About My Guest   Alex Shartsis is a multi-exit founder and go to market strategist who has led go-to-market at venture-backed startups including Drawbridge (acquired by LinkedIn) and TripIt (acquired by Concur), and ran corporate development at Opendoor. Today he is the co-founder and CEO of Skyp, the best AI outreach tool for sales teams — an AI-powered microcampaign platform that helps founders and sales teams book more meetings without hiring an SDR. He also runs Silverwood Advisors, an advisory practice focused on go to market strategy and early-stage M&A for founders. Alex writes the Seed to Sequoia newsletter on strategy, and the Skyp Go to Market Newsletter on outbound and sales strategy for founders and operators. You can connect with him on LinkedIn. Want to learn more about entrepreneurship? Check out “How to Go from Employee to Solopreneur to Entrepreneur with Sys Savanh“
Transcribe →How to Go from Employee to Solopreneur to Entrepreneur with Sys Savanh
Apr 2100:31:23Tap to summarizeThe journey from employee to entrepreneur can be confusing. Where do you begin? How to create a mindset to get you there? In this interview we answer questions like that with my guest, Sys Savanh. Sys is the founder of 7 Figure Expert Academy, where he helps entrepreneurs package, position, and scale their expertise into powerful offers that actually sell. In this conversation, we’re going beyond theory!     We’re talking about what’s working right now; how to stand out, how to monetize what you know, and how to build something that doesn’t just look good online… but actually grows your business. We dive into topics including: The fear of making the leap from employee to solopreneur and how to overcome it. How to start building a business as a solopreneur. The difference between a business operator and a business owner. How to make the shift from being an operator to an owner. The four pillars of a successful business. Why you still need people working for you when you’re a solopreneur. How to know when you’re ready to make the leap from solopreneur to entrepreneur. Why you can’t build a brand first; you have to sell first. The characteristics of entrepreneurs that make them different than solopreneurs. How to automate your sales and generate consistent leads. How to maintain success as an entrepreneur and not slide backwards. How to hit the milestone of placing most of your focus on marketing instead of selling. The importance of developing procedures and processes. Why your main job as an entrepreneur is to get yourself seen more and how to do it. The one thing, above all else, that you have to do to be successful on your journey from employee to solopreneur to entrepreneur. …and other golden nuggets of advice! Sys’ Journey from Employee to Solopreneur to Entrepreneur Sys believes that when you’re an employee, there’s often a point when you have something brewing in your gut that tells you there’s something more out there. Just like Sys did for three years as an employee. He just knew that he was meant for more, like he was meant to do something great. Sys believes that if you have something tugging at you, you start asking yourself questions like “What’s my purpose, what’s the meaning of life and is there more to life than this?” Those are the types of questions he started asking himself as he was being the best employee possible for the companies he was working for. Ever since Sys was 10 years old he has always been a hard worker. He would go around his neighborhood knocking on doors asking if he could cut his neighbors’ lawns. When somebody allowed him to cut their grass for five bucks, he did it. Sys considered himself to be the best grass cutter. Then he went onto Burger King and then the VFW where he was the best dishwasher. At every company he went to work for, he was always the best. Then in 2002 he read a quote, “If you don’t build your dream, someone will hire you to build theirs.” That hit him like a ton of brick as an employee. Sys realized that he wasn’t building his dream but he was hired to build someone else’s and he was trading his time for money. That didn’t sit well with him. He realized it was time to… Stop Trading Time for Money There was a catalyst for him to make a transition two years later in 2004. Sys saw another quote from Jim Rohn; “If you didn’t come from a wealthy family, make sure a wealthy family comes from you.” He considered that to be his second sign from God. With that he decided enough’s enough. Sys decided God was speaking to him and he went for it. He started to figure out a plan. He went back to school to get his business degree. Then what started it all was when Sys was a manager at a very large company called ITT and he went into a board meeting one day. The CEO came out and told everyone he has lay off 57 people because people didn’t sell enough services. That stuck with him. Sys realized the CEO was right. It doesn’t matter what the economy is like, it doesn’t matter what’s happening in the marketplace. If somebody doesn’t sell, they have to lay people off. He had never done sales before, so he took a sales position just to learn how to sell and how to communicate. He was presented with two options. Do you want to get paid $55,000 a year plus bonuses, or do you want to make as much as you want? That would mean he would be on a hundred percent commission. He chose the hundred percent commission. He thanks God he did that because he just crushed it. Sys realized that it’s not that he was great at sales, he was just really good at being himself. That’s how his sales journey started and that’s when it really gave him the confidence to move from employee to a solopreneur. Making the Leap from Employee to Solopreneur Sys says there’s always fear involved with the decision to go from being an employee to being a solopreneur. There’s negative self-talk. He calls it “the crappy committee that’s inside of your head.” He says you have to fire that committee and change your board there. There’s a whole executive board up there in your head. When Sys made the leap the fear was there. He went for it anyways. He future paced myself and pretended he was 70 years old and sitting in his rocking chair and wondering what if he didn’t make the leap? Would he regret it? Then he decided, whether he succeeded or not, at least he could tell himself that he went for it. Then he asked himself what if I actually succeeded? What are my rewards? His rewards outweighed his regrets, and that gave him the courage to go through with it, even though fear was still there. There was a calling, Sys believes that God was calling to him to step out on his own. It was December 3rd, 2005, when he opened his very first business. In December of 2025 Sys celebrated his 20th anniversary as an entrepreneur. That business was a sales company. Sys went out and got contracts to sell other people’s products and services. He did that for close to seven years. And that is just the beginning! Listen to or watch the interview to continue this story and get more golden nuggets of advice! You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea” About My Guest Sys Savanh is an entrepreneur and business strategist who helps coaches, consultants, and experts turn what they know into scalable, high-income businesses. As the founder of 7 Figure Expert Academy, Sys specializes in helping entrepreneurs package their expertise, position themselves as authorities, and build offers that don’t just sound good—but actually convert. His work focuses on simplifying the path to growth—cutting through the noise of overcomplicated marketing and helping his clients create clear, repeatable systems that generate consistent revenue. If you’ve ever felt like you have more value to offer than what your business is currently producing, Sys is the kind of expert who helps bridge that gap—turning knowledge into impact, and impact into income. Connect with Sys on LinkedIn! Learn more about 7 Figures Expert Academy! Get your free gift; special for my audience! Want to learn more about entrepreneurship? Check out this interview, “How to Create a Millionaire Mindset with Cole Vandee”</...
Transcribe →Why You Should (or Shouldn’t) Start a Podcast with Jeff Dauler
Apr 1500:28:07Tap to summarizeStarting a podcast might be the fastest way to grow your brand… or the fastest way to waste your time. That’s the uncomfortable truth most entrepreneurs don’t want to hear. If you want to start a podcast you have to have a damn good reason and a strategy for success. I discuss how to develop those in this episode with my guest, Jeff Dauler. Jeff spent 25 years building top-rated morning radio shows before turning that same audience instinct toward a different medium. Today he co-leads tentwentytwo, a boutique podcast strategy firm that helps executives and brands turn ideas into shows that actually move business forward. He’s here to talk about what makes a podcast worthwhile, the mistakes 90% of podcasters make, and how to build something that actually grows your business.     We dive into topics including: Reasons NOT to start a podcast. The number of episodes you should expect to create when you start a podcast and why. How to create your ideal listener profile. The three questions Jeff asks all his potential clients to decide if a podcast is worth creating. What the structure of a successful podcast show looks like. What you need to say in the first sixty seconds of your podcast. What NOT to do during each of your podcast episodes. How to stay motivated to continue creating podcast episodes after your first few. How to create additional marketing and branding content from each of your podcast episodes. The one thing, above all else, that you need to do if you’re going to start a podcast. …and other golden nuggets of advice! Jeff’s Podcasting Story Jeff started his first podcast in 2016 and started doing podcasting full-time in 2019 when he was asked to leave the radio industry. He’s not bragging about getting fired. If you’ve worked in radio for 25 years and you’ve only gotten fired once, that’s a good track record. Jeff had a 25-year radio career, working a morning radio, working in a lot of different cities as an executive producer of a morning show and the co-host of another morning show and finally as a host of a morning show. When Jeff got fired in 2019 he had a severance package. That gave him the room to step back an take a look at his life. He didn’t have to rush out and immediately find another radio job. Jeff decided to sleep past 4:30 AM for the first time in his adult life and start a podcast business. The business took off and Jeff never looked back. A couple years after starting the business Jeff’s wife left her full-time job to run the podcast business with him. Her background is also in entertainment. She worked in music and live television. Together they make a pretty interesting and unique team for podcasting. Why Do Most People Want to Have a Podcast? Jeff says that more often than not, when somebody comes to him saying “I need a podcast” they rarely have a reason why they need a podcast in terms of goals, objectives or outcomes. They just think that they need a podcast because somebody told them they needed one or their competition has podcasts. Other times they know they’ve needed one for a while to help establish their brand and get their message out there. But most of the time they don’t know what measurable outcomes they want to achieve. That’s what Jeff’s company does. They help them define their strategy and determine what the goal of the podcast should be. Getting Started in the Podcasting World The first question Jeff asks every client is the same. “What do you want your podcast to do?” Most people candidly don’t know, they don’t realize everything that a podcast is capable of, so they don’t know how to answer that. Many people don’t realize that there’s a lot of work that goes into creating and maintaining a podcast. Too many people start a podcast to create content without ever thinking about what they want as an outcome or the end result to be. First, you have a clear goal and a clear objective for your show. The first question Jeff asks anybody is, “What does your podcast need to do for it to look like a success?” And then he reminds them that people like Mel Robbins, Joe Rogan and Dax Shepherd, and all of those shows, they exist to get as many listeners as possible because they make their money from advertisers. That’s why they release an episode every week or twice a week because they need a ton of listeners to get enough advertisers to be profitable. For 99% of the people that Jeff talks to, that is absolutely not necessary. What You DO Need to Get From a Podcast Endeavor Instead, what you DO need is six episodes or twelve episodes of really strategic content that is going to deliver a specific outcome. For example, networking or getting new clients. Jeff has to help most of his clients identify exactly what outcome they need to achieve to justify the existence of the podcast. Jeff says for nine out of ten people, it’s money related. They need more clients. They want to sell more books. They want to book more keynote speaking engagements. They usually discover that you don’t have to do what Dax Shepherd, Mel Robbins and Joe Rogan are doing. You don’t have to constantly put out endless episodes and try to grow a large audience. What you need to do is create a podcast that talks directly to a specific person who can move you in a specific direction and engage with you in a way that puts money in your pocket. You can usually accomplish that in six or twelve episodes. It’s not necessary to start a podcast and be committed to one episode every other week for the rest of your life. And that is just the beginning! Listen to or watch the interview to continue this story and get more golden nuggets of advice! You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea” About My Guest Jeff Dauler is co-founder of tentwentytwo, a boutique podcast strategy and production company that helps executives, thought leaders, and brands build shows with a purpose. With a career rooted in radio production, Jeff brings a rare combination of showbiz craft and business strategy to every project. tentwentytwo specializes in finite podcast seasons: twelve episodes designed around a clear goal, a defined audience, and a measurable outcome. Jeff’s philosophy is simple: a podcast that doesn’t serve your business isn’t a strategy, it’s a hobby. He helps clients close that gap. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn! Learn more about Jeff’s business! Want to learn more about podcasting? Check out this episode “How to Build Your Business with Podcasting with Steve Ramona“
Transcribe →How to Get Seen, Be Trusted, and Get Paid for What You Know with Christine Blosdale
Apr 800:28:00Tap to summarizeIf you want to grow as a successful thought leader, people need to see and trust you if you want to become profitable. I discuss how to move along that spectrum with my guest, Christine Blosdale. Christine is The Expert Authority Coach™ who helps entrepreneurs, creators, coaches, and thought leaders get seen, trusted, and paid for what they already know. She’s an award-winning media personality and five-time #1 bestselling author with over 25 years expertise in broadcasting, branding, and business growth.     We dive into topics including: The origin of imposter syndrome and how it creeps into your life. How to get over imposter syndrome. Examples of the negative stories you tell yourself and how to overcome them. What you need to do to start “being seen” Why if you’re not seen and heard, you’re not hired. How to pick the right kind of content to create to get yourself seen. Why owning your authentic personality your key to success and how to own it. How to craft your “signature story”. How to successfully go from being seen to being trusted. Strategies to author and promote your own book. The importance of taking things in small steps. Tips for successful first-time client meetings. How to gain the trust of potential clients. The biggest marketing mistake thought leaders make and how to avoid it. How to move from being trusted to getting paid without being pushy about it. How to “magnetize” yourself and bring the right people into your world. Examples of how to shift the energy that you’re giving off. The one thing, above all else, that you need to do to be seen, trusted and paid. …and other golden nuggets of advice! Christine’s Journey Christine has had many, many years of entrepreneurship experience and coaching experience with her clients from all around the world. She has found that there is a particular way of expanding your expert authority so that people get to see you, get to hear you, and ultimately get to trust you, which is the most important thing if you’re an entrepreneur. Christine has been working on that formula for several decades. A while back she worked in a major radio station in Los Angeles. She was a host and a producer, so she got to know what people want. Christine raised a lot of money online, about 1.5 million a year, for a nonprofit radio station. It’s about knowing what people want and what they need and then delivering it to them is something that Christine has honed in on over the years. When she worked for America Online it was during the days when there was no TikTok, there was no YouTube, nothing like that. It was just pure communication through written columns and other written content. Christine has honed her skills over the years and she’s happy to be here to tell my wonderful listeners and viewers what we can do to expand our expert authority. Dealing with and Working Through “Imposter Syndrome” Because so many entrepreneurs experience it, when Christine works with clients, they address the “Imposter Syndrome” issue right away. A lot of people experience imposter syndrome and it affects entrepreneurs more than most others. For some people it follows them around in everything they do. For others, they’re fine until they’re asked to stretch themselves. In other words, when they do something that they haven’t done before, or do something that’s a little scary and out of their comfort zone, imposter syndrome appears. There are many potential scenarios. Maybe it’s being asked to speak in front of a crowd. If that person has never done that before, imposter syndrome can creep up. What that is, is basically a fear of being found out of not being an expert. It’s a fear of what other people are going think about you and what people will say about you. So… Who Faces Imposter Syndrome the Most? It’s a comparison mindset that comes with questions like “Who am I to be speaking to these people? There must be people that are better experts in this field or more credible in this field.” Here’s the thing: It mostly happens to overachievers. For example it happens to therapists who have years and years of study and all the certifications and the qualifications and the experience BUT they’re stepping into a new realm like speaking. Overachievers tend to suffer from imposter syndrome more than your average person who’s just going through life living by the status quo. Imposter syndrome can stop people in their tracks. It’s a shame because a lot of people who can be helped by you, who can be impacted by your coaching, by your consulting and such, they don’t get that help if you allow the imposter syndrome to hold you back. Christine tries to get rid of that right away with her clients. There’s a couple ways that she goes about that. We’ll get to that in a minute. For now let’s ask and answer… Why Does Imposter Syndrome Affect Over Achievers More Than Others? It’s because the overachiever actually has more to lose, or they think that they have more to lose. It’s because whatever it is that they approach in life, they try and do their best and try to be perfect at everything. If it’s something that they’ve never done before and it’s scary, then they might just not do it at all. Their stance is “If I can’t do it perfectly, I’m not going to do it”. Here’s the thing: People don’t need thing done perfectly for them. People are craving humanity and craving authenticity, a real person, flaws in all. That’s one thing that Christine works on with her clients: To be authentic and to come through as a real person that people will respect. Your tribe and the people that are meant for you will be magnetized to you. That’s a great reason to get over that perfection aspect of doing things. And that is just the beginning! Listen to or watch the interview to continue this story and get more golden nuggets of advice! You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea” About My Guest Christine Blosdale is The Expert Authority Coach™ who helps entrepreneurs, creators, coaches, and thought leaders get seen, trusted, and paid for what they already know. She’s an award-winning media personality and five-time #1 bestselling author with over 25 years expertise in broadcasting, branding, and business growth. Christine has worked with global giants like America Online and Microsoft, and has guided hundreds of experts to step into their own unique Expert Authority. As the host of The Expert Authority Coach™ Podcast (ranked in the top 2% globally) Christine delivers conversations that engage, educate, and energize audiences. Her interviews are fast-paced, relatable, and filled with sharp insights — all while delivering simple, actionable takeaways listeners can apply immediately. She’s been featured in Woman’s Day Magazine, Ticker News, and on numerous podcasts, and is known for her bold yet approachable style that leaves audiences inspired, empowered, and ready to take action long after the episode ends. Connect with Christine on LinkedIn! Learn more about Christine and her business! Want more marketing advice? Check out “How to Create Story-Driven Content Marketing Campaigns with Katie Wagner̶...
Transcribe →How to Design Your Ideal Life by Creating Fulfillment and Impact with Mo Salami
Mar 2500:29:11Tap to summarizeDesigning and living your ideal life is possible IF you have the right strategies. A big part of that is creating fulfillment in your own life while positively impacting the world around you. In this episode I discuss how to do just that with my guest, Mo Salami.     Mo is a High-Performance Coach and International Keynote Speaker. He speaks multiple languages, fluent in English, French, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. Mo is a former Senior Mentor for World Class Peak Performance Guru Tony Robbins. Whilst part of his California-based team, Mo generated tens of millions of dollars in sales for Tony Robbins’ events worldwide. Mo has done over 20,000 hours of 1:1 consulting; including consulting with over 8,000 business owners doing a million dollars a year in revenue or more. We dive into topics including: The three-prong approach of designing your ideal life. How to move towards the result that you want even before you see the result you want. How to know what opportunities to take advantage of and what to say no to. How to train today for who you will become tomorrow. How to blend fulfillment and financial success. When the tough times hit how to keep on keepin’ on mentally and otherwise. The “Three R’s” to reset your mindset. The 60-second, three-part strategy to get into a high-performance zone. The one thing, above all else, that you need to do to design your ideal life. …and other golden nuggets of advice! Mo’s Origin Story Mo came from a whole other world. The turning point for Mo came from seeing a sign and before we get to the sign, he’ll give this some context. Mo is from a family where having a degree is just the holy grail, if you will, of success and preferably a degree in the sciences. Mo got his first degree when he was 20 years old; he completed a whole college degree. The first one. That was the only definition of success he had at that point. Looking back he realizes how naive he was. He ended up getting three degrees and started his career in the medical field. He bought a nice house in a nice neighborhood, got a nice car, all that great stuff. The challenge was his nice six figure salary came with 16 hour work days. Mo had no free time, no “me time”, and work was his life. When he got to the end of each year his life was just a blur of 16-hour shifts. Mo was a bit confused and unsure of his life choices because success didn’t feel like he thought it would. Then one day he was in a bookstore in Central London and saw a sign and the sign said “How to be Successful”. It turns out the sign was an ad for a book called “The Success Principles by Jack Canfield”. Mo grabbed the book and started reading it right then and there. Mo discovered a whole other world that he knew nothing about. He had a look at the chapters. Mo glanced at the back of the book and saw this huge list of other books, and he read all of them. Mo says the pivot was instantaneous. He didn’t even think about it. It was just an instantaneous pivot. It was literally that sign in the bookstore. Those books led him to… A Fork in the Road The fork in the road Mo encountered was, does he stick to his current path of apparent success? Or does he pursue this new definition of success that he had just discovered? Mo chose the latter. He traveled to Europe, USA, Canada, Asia, wherever, to learn from the best success teachers he could find. Whatever the cost, whatever the distance, he decided he was going to be there. Very soon he got a measure of expertise in online business, sales and marketing, personal development, and public speaking. He even went to work for Tony Robbins for eight years as a Senior Mentor. In that role he helped a lot of very high achievers and aspiring high achievers to get to that very next level as well. Mo’s role as a Senior Mentor was also a sales role. Because of that he had the opportunity to put all the learning he had about sales into practice. One of the highlights was making a million dollars in sales in a 90-day period. That meant he had thousands of opportunities to help people get to the next level. What he discovered was apparent success is when somebody else decides what success means for you; whereas actual success is success that you decide on your own terms. It’s just as simple as that. What he does today is help people get to their own purpose driven success. Mo calls it “Lifestyle Design”. You can also call it your own purpose-driven success. That’s for your own impact on the world and your own fulfillment as you define it. Fulfillment in many cases was gained through personal development, coaching, and leveraging those avenues to get to design the exact lifestyle that you want. Then Mo encountered… The Pivot That Made All The Difference He asked himself, “How do I get to be the best in this brand new, brave new world that I’ve discovered?” With some reflection, Mo realized it’s not because he wanted to be better than anyone else. It was more about becoming the very, very best version of himself to help him help other people become successful to the best of his ability. And that is just the beginning! Listen to or watch the interview to continue this story and get more golden nuggets of advice! You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea” About My Guest   Mo Salami is a High‑Performance Coach, International Keynote Speaker, and online marketing strategist fluent in English, French, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese — a rare combination that allows him to connect deeply with diverse leaders and drive results across cultures and industries. What sets Mo apart isn’t just what he knows — it’s what he’s proven: Served as a Senior Mentor on Tony Robbins’ peak performance team, contributing to tens of millions in global event revenue. Logged 20,000+ hours of one‑on‑one consulting, coaching thousands of business owners earning $1M+ annually. Helped clients achieve measurable outcomes like 30–300% revenue increases within 6–12 months, improved decision quality, and better work‑life alignment. Learn more about Mo! Connect with Mo on LinkedIn! Want more inspiration? Check this interview: “How to Turn Obstacles into Opportunities with Lasada Pippen“
Transcribe →How to Turn Obstacles into Opportunities with Lasada Pippen
Feb 2600:23:15Tap to summarizeEveryone faces obstacles; it’s just a major part of everyone’s life. They don’t have to stop you in your tracks IF you have the right strategies. Obstacles can become hidden gifts that open new doors for you if you know where to look. In this episode we’re discussing how to turn obstacles into opportunities with my guest, Lasada Pippin. Lasada was raised in an underserved community as a young African American and defied the odds to build a successful career in engineering and become a first-generation college graduate. His journey reflects the resilience and determination that now fuel his mission as an inspirational speaker.   Lasada’s signature keynote series, “Say It Better: Communicate with Clarity & Lead with Confidence” draws directly from that path: Empowering corporate professionals, educators, and youth to overcome obstacles and pursue meaningful growth. With a message rooted in grit, reinvention, and purpose, he equips audiences with practical strategies to lead with intention, rise stronger, and climb higher. We dive into topics including: How to make and support your decision to “burn the boats” How to successfully step into the new space that you’re striving towards. The importance of finding the finish line and keeping your eyes on it at all times. What you need to do to build momentum to get to the finish line. What to do to stay once you’ve “burned the boats’ and successfully gotten to your island of success. The role of self-confidence in turning obstacles into opportunities. Why it’s of the utmost importance to move towards something that you’re truly passionate about. How to take action in “the moment of now” one small step at a time. How to keep on keepin’ on after the initial excitement of your journey fades. The reason you must really know and understand your “Why” on your journey. How to get strategic about your goals instead of just riding high on excitement and love. The power of starting with the end in mind. The three questions you need to ask yourself and answer to turn obstacles into opportunities. Why your journey never ends, it just evolves over time. The importance of celebrating your small wins. The importance of having a way to measure your progress and how to create it. The one thing, above all else, that you need to do to turn obstacles into opportunities. …and more golden nuggets of advice! Starting to Turn Obstacles Into Opportunities Lasada grew up in an underserved community with low resources and not having a whole lot. He feels like during his entire life that he’s had to turn obstacles into opportunities. Lasada says there always seemed to be some type of roadblock, some type of challenge. He has a background in engineering and technology where he spent his professional time for a decade. Making the shift from engineering and technology into the keynote and motivational speaking space was an obstacle. Lasada had to see the opportunity inside of that transitional moment if he wanted to get past that obstacle. An obstacle can be anything. It can be fear, it can be anxiety, it can be procrastination, it can be self-doubt, it can be a lack of self-confidence. There are so many obstacles that we don’t realize are obstacles because they’re wrapped in a different type of clothing. Because of that there are so many obstacles that we need to identify, and that’s the only way that we can turn them into opportunities. For Lasada it was getting over the fear, embracing it, learning how to coexist with it, and building up his self-confidence. He needed to develop the confidence that he could make each leap and go forward and operate in the space of keynote and motivational speaking that he operates in today. It was the start of… A Lifelong Journey Turning obstacles into opportunities has been a lifelong journey for Lasada. He said that it doesn’t have to be a life altering, such as super darkness, but let’s just say “dark times”. When you hit the dark times, you hit obstacles. It’s then that you really need to see and focus on the opportunities and grab them whenever you can. Lasada made… The Decision to Create Opportunities When Lasada was getting ready to leave Corporate America he was faced with a decision. His contract had ended, and so he had the opportunity to renew his contract. He could stay there and prolong the contract and continue being in a place that included a great income and great people. Nothing was “wrong” per se. OR he could take a leap of faith and go after what he really wanted to do, what he really loved, and what he really desired. He said a lot of times you are so blinded by what’s good that it blinds you from getting to what’s great. If you are blinded by darkness in your life, it’s oftentimes going to be hard to see that light. You have to shift your perspective. You have to change the way you see things. You admit the obstacle in the situation at hand, but at the same time realize there’s also an opportunity naturally baked into every obstacle. When you adopt the mindset that for every problem there is a solution, whether you have the solution at that time or not, that’s a whole different story. You can adopt a mindset that within every problem there’s also a solution. Lasada made a mental shift, and when he left Corporate America and took that leap and put himself out there, he did something inspiring. He “burned the boats”. He decided there was no turning back. Lasada did that because he didn’t want to give himself room to go backwards after making a leap of faith. What does this mean for you? You want to give yourself the opportunity to move forward on a new path. Lasada made the leap and jumped out into the keynote and motivational speaking space. The way he burned the boats was by deciding he couldn’t go back into Corporate America and couldn’t go back into contract positions. In short, he couldn’t go back into engineering and technology. The decision was made. Lasada had to figure out where the opportunities were for him to continue to press forward. For every obstacle that he faced Lasada had to believe there has to be some kind of workaround and then embrace that pathway. He believed there had to be some type of solution to get to the island of success he yearned for. Burning the boats needs to start from the moment that you make the decision. For Lasada, it was when he made the decision to leave engineering and technology and go into the keynote and motivational speaking space. The decision to burn the boats started right there at that moment. And that is just the beginning! Listen to or watch the interview to continue this story and get more golden nuggets of advice! You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea” About My Guest   Lasada Pippen’s journey from the tech world to the keynote stage equips him with a unique and powerful perspective as a motivational speaker. A bilingual STEM professional, he spent over a decade thriving in the engineering field before realizing that his greatest impact wouldn’t be made behind a screen, but in front of an audience. Lasada is a former engineer turned keynote speaker and communication coach. He helps professionals, teams, and leaders say it better—so they can lead better, teach better, and c...
Transcribe →How to Get Focused and Get into Flow States with Peter Wishnie
Feb 1800:24:25Tap to summarizeWhen entrepreneurs are on a winning streak it’s called getting into a “flow state” (what athlete’s call “The Zone”). They achieve more in less time. You can train your mind to get into flow states when you have the right strategies. That’s what I discuss in this episode with my guest, Peter Wishnie.     In his younger years Peter purchased a medical practice and after one year, he made more money than the previous owner did in any one of his 17 years of ownership. Peter has been in business for over 33 years and has made multiple 7 figures for 30 consecutive years, landing him in the top 1% in his field. During those years he has learned key secrets that have helped him work a lot less while growing his business year after year. In 2022, he sold that business for $2 million more than he paid for it. The reason he sold it is because his passion is now to help other entrepreneurs learn to live the life they deserve and desire. Peter believes people become business owners or leaders not to be slaves to their jobs, but to have the freedom to enjoy their families, hobbies, and friends. We dive into topics including: Why you have to know and write out you KPIs, your Key Performance Indicators for your business. Why you have to review your KPI’s at least weekly if not more often. How to maintain focus once you’ve gotten started. How to survive and embrace the roller coaster ride of focus. Why consistency every single day is king; it’s not about overloading your schedule. The definition of and examples of flow state, or being “in the zone” as athletes call it. How to stay in the zone and not get knocked out of it for short periods of time. Why creative ideas come when you’re most relaxed. The benefits and rewards of getting yourself into flow state. What comes first; focus or flow state. The one thing, above all else, that you need to do to get focused and into flow state. …and other golden nuggets of advice! Peter’s Story of Focus and Flow State Peter says he is far from the expert of ALWAYS being focused. After every video he creates, he says “stay focused my friends”. It’s a play on words from that beer commercial, “stay thirsty my friends”. He says that because getting focused and into flow states isn’t always easy. We’re constantly getting interrupted with calls and our electronic devices amongst a myraid of other modern distractions. Peter says he’s constantly getting bombarded with messages, and he tries to keep up with them. He remembers when he was younger back in 1989, when he purchased his practice. Peter didn’t even have a desktop computer. People didn’t have cell phones. It was easy to get and stay focused with few interruptions. At the time when the phone rang it was a great thing for a business owner because it could be a prospect. Creating focus and flow state is something Peter has since learned. He loves to study. He loves to listen to and learn from people. Peter purchased his first Franklin Covey planner back in the early 1990s. Peter wrote down his goals for the year; exactly what he wanted to achieve. He wrote them down based on what he was going to do every single month, then every single week, which made staying focused easier. There’s a great book, “The One Thing”. It tells you to focus on the one thing that will make the most impact on your life. Peter adopted that principle. Then he adopted Michael Hyatt’s “Full Focus Planner” system. As a result Peter wrote down the three major things he needed to accomplish every single day. Some people love to cross things out every day. They could be many things. One example is writing 20 pages in the book you’re working on. If that’s the one thing, the other things on your list don’t matter as much. You can also figure out what the top three things you must do are and write them down every day to get more done. You must decide what’s important for your family, your relationships, your health, and so on. Then it’s a matter of putting those things first while you have a business to take care of. If you don’t take care of those other things, take care of yourself, your health, and building up your energy levels you’re going to crash sometime during the day. You might wake up totally fogged up, your brain’s all fogged because you’re not doing the right things to take care of yourself day in and day out. That’s where energy comes into play… Managing Your Energy Imagine having a burst of energy. When you have that energy you can go longer during the day. The day goes by faster because you are full of pep. Peter believes flow states start with that. How did he learn to do that? It came from medical school. Now remember going to college. In Peter’s case he always had those few hard classes, but he also signed up for some easier courses like history of rock and roll. Meanwhile, he was taking physics and chemistry as a pre-med student. Peter had a hard time his first year in school and he read a book called “How to Study”. From that he learned how to organize and how to focus and then how to schedule times to be focused. This lead Peter to discover… The Importance of Writing and Journaling Where do you start to get focused? Pull out a piece of paper or a journal. Write down everything that’s on your mind. Everything that you think that needs to get done or everything that’s bothering you. And just the things that are bothering you. Write down your successes and the things that you are grateful for. Just write down everything and get it out of your head. Then divide your life into a pie. Things like health, relationships, friendships, finances, your business goals, relaxation time, and so on. Then decide what are you going to do and what you want for each of those areas? What are your goals? Just pick one little goal that you want to accomplish in the next 90 days. Pick the one thing and make it happen. Then tackle the rest. And that is just the beginning! Listen to or watch the interview to continue this story and get more golden nuggets of advice! You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea” About My Guest   In his younger years Peter Wishnie purchased a medical practice and after one year, he made more money than the previous owner did in any one of his 17 years of ownership. Peter has been in business for over 33 years and has made multiple 7 figures for 30 consecutive years, landing him in the top 1% in his field. During those years he has learned key secrets that have helped him work a lot less while growing the business year after year. In 2022, he sold that business for $2 million more than he paid for it. The reason he sold it was mainly because his passion is now to help other businesses learn to have the life they so deserve and desire. Peter believes people become business owners or leaders not to be slaves to your jobs but to have the freedom to enjoy your family, hobbies, and friends. Peter wants to help you live your best life. Connect with Peter on LinkedIn! Learn more about Peter’s coaching and speaking! Want to learn about “being in the zone” when it comes to money? Check out “How To Have a Successful Money Mindset with Robin Waite”
Transcribe →How to Create Story-Driven Content Marketing Campaigns with Katie Wagner
Feb 300:21:24Tap to summarizeEveryone talks about the power of storytelling. But how do you cut through the hype and use it to create real world results? With the right strategies storytelling can become a profitable part of your content marketing campaigns. In this episode I discuss how to create meaningful story-driven content marketing campaigns with my guest, Katie Wagner.     Katie spent more than 15 years as a journalist. In 2010, Katie realized that she could use the skills she learned in the newsroom to help business owners connect with their clients online and started her own agency, KWSM. Katie is a proud member of Vistage, Provisors and the Young Entrepreneur Council. She has served as a member of the Advisory Board for Web Wise Kids, a non-profit focused on keeping kids safe on the internet and social media. In 2012, she was honored with the organization’s ‘Champion for Children Award.’ We dive into topics including: How to use informational interviews with your clients to create your marketing stories. The structure of a great informational interview. Where and how to share your story once you create it. How to get happy clients to share your story with their friends in their language. Why learning why your happy clients are happy can help you learn a lot about your business and ultimately improve your client experience. A deeper discussion into how to create a successful marketing strategy with your content once it’s ready. An examination of the pillars of story-driven content marketing and how to expand that marketing process. How to uncover how prospects discover you and make the decision to become your clients. The definition of “nurturing content” and how to create it. How to nurture your client relationships once you close the deal. How to get qualified referrals from your existing clients. Why case studies are the most compelling way to create story-driven marketing campaigns and how to create great ones. The one thing, above all else, you need to do to create story-driven content marketing campaigns. …and more golden nuggets of advice! Getting Into Storytelling Katie was a journalist for 15 years before she started a digital marketing agency. She specifically worked in television and radio. She worked all over the world and retired from CNN headline News back in 2009 and opened her agency in 2010. She did that because she realized that nobody was going home to watch the five o’clock news anymore. They were craving relatable stories to consume and moving to other social platforms outside of television. They started getting their headlines from places like Facebook and Twitter. As those mediums came to prominence, they became the way people wanted to get their information. Katie saw an opportunity to teach business owners how to tell their story using digital channels. She believed that founding a company in the tenets of journalism and knowing what attracts an audience was a good place to start. Let’s look at… What Successful Marketing is Really About First Katie defined brand journalism. To her that is the act of creating content that builds an emotional connection with the consumer. It’s about the humans involved in a business; not just the business entity. Brand journalism highlights the stories of the people that make or deliver your products or services. It highlights the stories of the people that benefit from your products and services. It’s about emotionally connecting stories that we have to tell beyond just features and benefits also known as the marketing or the sales language. It’s really about human language. Those are the stories they tell at the her agency. Even during the early days of social media gaining prominence, they had to interview their clients to uncover the human side of their stories. When you ask somebody about their business they usually talk about the services they provide and what those services can do for people or their products and what the benefits are. They forget the most important parts. The relatable human parts. What are they? They’re found in answers to questions such as what value do your products or services provide for people? How do they change lives? From there the story focuses on the transformation achieved from using your products and services. The first step with Katie’s clients is to teach people to start thinking of their businesses based on the answers to those questions. From there they focus on the outcomes their clients’ are creating more than the products and services they are delivering. Which leads us to look at… The Structure of A Great Story When Katie’s agency is telling stories for their clients there’s a purpose behind every story they tell. They think of it as the “transformation moment”. There’s what’s going on with your clients before they meet you; what is life like before they interact with you? What are their pain points? Then there’s engagement. They use your product or service. And then there’s what happens in your clients’ lives afterwards. That is the story arc you want to tell. Look at it another way. What are their struggles? What are the fears and motivations they have? And then what happens at that moment they engage with your products or services? Then what is the transformation after that engagement? How is life different? How does life look better, safer or easier for them? If you can start creating content around that transformation point, those stories really resonate with people. Even when Katie’s agency is creating website content for a client they paint a picture of the pain that prospects are facing and how their client’s product or service solves that. Not through what dit does, but what is the emotional state their solution invokes? The before and the after. If you think of that story arc, that’s a great place to start. And then there are a multitude of different spinoffs from that. You can talk about individual types of pain. Is it philosophical or an emotional pain? Is it a physical pain? Is it a tactical pain? Here’s an example using Katie’s own business. People that hire KWSM do so because they want qualified leads for their businesses. The sort of surface pain point may be that their business is slow or they’re not getting as much business as they want, or they need a better way to get business. But really the pain point is “My business won’t survive unless I bring in new clients.” That is the emotional connection they’re trying to get. People need lead generation not just to grow, but because they’re afraid of what happens if they don’t grow. Unfortunately, people don’t usually admit that to each other. But if you dig deep, for example, if most of Katie’s clients are afraid in today’s geopolitical climate, they fear that if they don’t have a good lead generation strategy, their business may not make it through to the other side. And that’s the pain point they have to step into and solve. And that is just the beginning! Listen to or watch the interview to continue this story and get more golden nuggets of advice! You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea” About My Guest Katie Wagner spent more than 15 years as a journalist. After graduating Magna Cum Laude from Boston University with a B.S. in Broadcast Journalism and a B.A. in International Relations, she began her career as an investigative reporter, and then spent a decade as a television and radio news anchor. Katie has worked at CBS, ABC, Fox, CNN and National Public Radio. In addition, she has appeared on dozens of commercials...
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