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This is Part 3 of my 5-Part Series on Increasing Your Twitter Promotion. Twitter is my website's number 1 source of social traffic and an integral part of my digital marketing strategy. It's well worth the time to watch this brief video series to ma...

This podcast is a real treat. Robert Rose is the second guest I've had from the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), which is virtually an institution of knowledge on content marketing. Robert is CMI's Chief Strategist there, and I definitely learned some new strategies taht I'm looking forward to sharing with you! CMI's stated goal is to advance the practice of content marketing, and one of the ways they do this is by training their consulting clients. Robert walks us through the process they use to turn a brand new lead into a paying client, including details of their funnel and what they do if a prospect doesn't buy. He also shares some strategies that can significantly inflate the reach of your content as he walks us through how and when to use press releases for posts, and how to cross post influencers' content. That's not all. When you listen to this interview, you'll hear Robert and I talk about: (2:45) Introductions (4:45) An overview of how they are attracting consulting clients (10:00) An overview of how they track where their leads come from (11:55) What happens if their consulting leads don't buy (17:45) An overview of how to structure an agency funnel (20:30) The different types of registration forms and how to use them (22:45) An overview of the BrightIdeas funnel, and how it could be improved (29:45) How a secondary call to action mid-funnel can improve the buyer journey (31:45) Traffic or conversion, which is easier to increase? (35:15) How to attract other writers (38:45) How to engage a new contributing writer (40:45) How & why to do a press release for a new post More About This Episode The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business. It's designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today - all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big. Listen Now About Robert Rose Robert is the Chief Strategist for the Content Marketing Institute, and Senior Contributing Analyst for Digital Clarity Group.Robert is the author of the book Managing Content Marketing, which spent two weeks as a top ten marketing book on Amazon.com.  As a recognized expert in content marketing strategy, digital media and the social Web, Robert innovates creative and technical strategies for a wide variety of clientele.  He’s helped large companies such as 3M, ADP, AT&T, KPMG, Staples, PTC and Petco tell their story more effectively through the Web. He’s worked to help develop digital marketing efforts for entertainment and media brands such as Dwight Yoakam, Nickelodeon and NBC. And, he’s helped marketers at smaller organizations such as East Harlem Tutorial Program, Coburn Ventures and Hippo to amplify their story through Content Marketing and Social Web Strategies.He is a featured writer for the online magazines iMedia Connection, Fierce Content Management and CMSWire and also a featured author in the book “Enterprise 2.0 How Technology, E-Commerce and Web 2.0 Are Transforming Business Virtually.An early Internet pioneer, Robert has more than 15 years of experience, and a track record of helping brands and businesses develop successful Web and content marketing strategies.

If you want proof that you don't need decades of experience and a huge Rolodex full of clients in order to start a marketing agency, look no further. Andrew and his colleagues at Guavabox launched an agency right out of college, and by all measures are on track to have a tremendously successful business. Guavabox does an impressive job of generating content marketing. And, more than almost anyone I've spoken with, they not only understand the importance of list segmentation, but they provide an overview of how they've segmented their list, and how this segmentation has helped them identify their hottest prospects, and appropriately nurture and convert their leads into paying clients. In addition, Andrew explains the thinking behind, and validation of, their business model, sharing insights helpful to any startup. There was so much goodness in this interview that I had to break it into two parts. If you missed Part 1, you'll want to check it out to hear Andrew and I talk about: (3:30) Introductions (5:50) Why the old model of web design doesn't scale (8:30) An overview of financial results (10:00) His business philosophy and how it played a critical role in their launch (13:30) How they validated their business model (16:30) How taking on a new client went wrong (21:00) How they picked their niche (25:30) How they are generating leads (27:30) How blogging plays a role in lead generation (29:30) How they developed their personas (35:30) An overview of outbound marketing .. And be sure to check out Part 2 below, where we discuss: (3:00) An overview of various nurturing campaigns (7:00) An overview of how they're using personas to segment their list (13:00) An overview of when and how they decide to follow up with each lead (16:30) An overview of how they are changing their business model to a retainer fee model (21:00) An overview of their retainer plans (12:40) How they report results (traffic & leads) and what they're planning for the month ahead (25:00) How they manage client expectations (28:00) How they are producing blog content (31:00) How they are using contractors (33:00) An overview of how they are in track with their goals Resources Mentioned Inbound Marketing 101 Ebook Zerys.com ClearBloggingSolutions.com Guavabox.com Best Buyer Formula More About This Episode The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business. It's designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today - all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big. Listen Now Transcript Trent: Hey there bright idea hunters, welcome to the Bright Ideas Podcast. I am your host Trent Dyrsmid, and this is the podcast for marketing agencies, marketing consultants and entrepreneurs who want to discover how to use content marketing and marketing automation to massively boost their business without massively boosting the amount of hours that they have to work every single week.On the show with me today is Andrew Dymski, and this is part two of a two part series that Andrew and I did. If you missed the first part, you can get to it by going to BrightIdeas.co/74, and in this episode we're going to continue the discussion that we had, where he is explaining to us how he is building, very successfully I might add, his marketing agency GuavaBox.In this second part we're going to be talking about the very creative and intelligent ways that he is nurturing and converting his leads to customers. We're also going to be talking about how he know when to follow up with and who to follow up with out of all the leads that are coming into his funnel.We're going to talk about an overview into how they're changing their business from a fee based business,

If you want proof that you don't need decades of experience and a huge Rolodex full of clients in order to start a marketing agency, look no further. Andrew and his colleagues at Guavabox launched an agency right out of college, and by all measures are on track to have a tremendously successful business. Guavabox does an impressive job of generating content marketing. And, more than almost anyone I've spoken with, they not only understand the importance of list segmentation, but they provide an overview of how they've segmented their list, and how this segmentation has helped them identify their hottest prospects, and appropriately nurture and convert their leads into paying clients. In addition, Andrew explains the thinking behind, and validation of, their business model, sharing insights helpful to any startup. There was so much goodness in this interview that I had to break it into two parts. When you listen to Part 1, you'll hear Andrew and I talk about: (3:30) Introductions (5:50) Why the old model of web design doesn't scale (8:30) An overview of financial results (10:00) His business philosophy and how it played a critical role in their launch (13:30) How they validated their business model (16:30) How taking on a new client went wrong (21:00) How they picked their niche (25:30) How they are generating leads (27:30) How blogging plays a role in lead generation (29:30) How they developed their personas (35:30) An overview of outbound marketing .. And be sure to check out Part 2 to hear: (3:00) An overview of various nurturing campaigns (7:00) An overview of how they're using personas to segment their list (13:00) An overview of when and how they decide to follow up with each lead (16:30) An overview of how they are changing their business model to a retainer fee model (21:00) An overview of their retainer plans (12:40) How they report results (traffic & leads) and what they're planning for the month ahead (25:00) How they manage client expectations (28:00) How they are producing blog content (31:00) How they are using contractors (33:00) An overview of how they are in track with their goals Resources Mentioned Inbound Marketing 101 Ebook Zerys.com ClearBloggingSolutions.com Guavabox.com Best Buyer Formula More About This Episode The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business. It's designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today - all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big. Listen Now Transcript Trent: Hey there, Bright Ideas hunters. Welcome to the Bright Ideas podcast. I'm your host, Trent Dyrsmid, and this is the podcast for marketing agencies, marketing consultants, and entrepreneurs who want to discover how to use content marketing and marketing automation to massively boost their business without massively boosting the number of hours that they have to work every single week. And the way that we do that is we bring on whip-smart entrepreneurs to share with you the tactics and the strategies that are working so very well for them, and that is exactly what we're going to do in this episode today.On the show with me today is a fellow by the name of Andrew Dymski. He is one of three co-founders of a new marketing agency called GuavaBox, and they are doing some really impressive things which we're going to get into in this two-part podcast.So in Part Number One, which you are now listening to, we are going to be talking about how they launched the company, how they picked their niche, and there's some real key takeaways in how and why they picked this specific niche that they did. We're going to talk about how developing a minimum viable product fit

Do you wish there were some way to generate twice as much revenue in your business without doing twice as much work? Derek Coburn felt the same way with his wealth management firm. He realized that in order to significantly increase his revenue, he was going to have to either work a lot more hours, or find a different way of working. Luckily for Derek, he was able to specialize and differentiate himself from other financial advisers, which significantly increased his client retention, as well as the amount his clients valued him. In Derek's case, this value came from what he calls "The Ultimate Tie Breaker" - he was able to differentiate himself by sending clients referrals. There's nothing a business owner loves more than more business, right? Derek was so good at making those connections that he made a whole second business of it (cadre). Luckily for you, Derek has shared his story with us. He includes details on cadre, which he co-founded with his wife Melanie. They call cadre an "un-networking" group, and have had great success by helping their group members help each other. When you listen to this interview, you'll hear Derek and I talk about: (03:25) Introductions (06:00) How he built his financial firm (08:30) An explanation of his first networking group (10:30) How to add extra value to his clients by referring them clients (13:30) How he expanded the conversation with his clients, to talk about more than financial planning (16:00) How he used surveys to reach out and ask how to provide extra value (17:15) How he created the time to launch his second business, cadre (23:30) Going from idea to reality with cadre (26:40) How he used a webinar to launch the concept (31:00) How he got existing members to refer more (36:00) How his business model has evolved to justify $3000 upfront to join (41:00) How he ran a launch meeting (46:00) His plans for the future of cadre (48:30) An introduction to his book (50:00) The Boise launch plan (1:03:00) An overview of how to be more useful to your clients Resources Mentioned cadre The Thank You Economy Care.com Informly’s podcast Amy Porterfield’s podcast Human Business Works – Chris Brogan Youtility – Jay Baer School of Greatness – Lewis Howes More About This Episode The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business. It's designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today - all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big. Listen Now Transcript Trent: Hey there Bright Ideas hunters. Welcome to the Bright Ideas Podcast. I am your host, Trent Dyrsmid. This is the podcast for marketing agencies, marketing consultants and entrepreneurs who want to discover how to use content marketing and marketing automation to massively boost their business without having to massively boost the number of hours they work every week.We do this by bringing on experts who share with us the story of what made them so successful and this episode is no different. We are going to be joined by a fellow by the name of Derek Coburn who is a partner in a very successful financial advisory firm and has about 15 employees and he has been doing that for quite a while.But, more recently he's also the author of a book and founder of another company. The book is called "Why Networking is Not Working" and as you might guess from the title it's about obviously why networking is failing and Cadre, his new business, is predominately a DC based community of remarkable professionals. Their members are the cream of the crop in their industries and more interested in sharing resources than gathering leads.So, in this interview Derek is going to share with us exactly how he

If you want to learn marketing from someone who knows his stuff, you could do worse than to talk with Meny Hoffman, CEO of Ptex Group, a growing marketing agency with 27 employees. Unlike many marketing agencies that haven't reached the size of Ptex Group, Meny's company has multiple divisions. Ptex supports their clients with everything from strategic planning and branding; to specific design, print and web development work. They even have an in-house call center that can answer phones on behalf of their clients. Another unique offering from Ptex Group is their "Let's Talk Buisness" conference, a one day live event that sold out of seats at 650 attendees. There are a lot more goodies in this interview. When you listen, you'll hear Meny and I talk about: An overview of his lead generation strategy How to generate leads beyond referrals The details of the compensation plan for his sales reps An overview of a marketing funnel, and why it's so important to focus on the human touch An overview of a 'Project Awarded' campaign Why he has a call center division An overview of their business conference, including how they generated sponsorship revenue More About This Episode The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business. It's designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today - all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big. Listen Now About Meny Hoffman Meny Hoffman is the CEO of Ptex Group, an Inc. 500/5000-ranked marketing and business services firm headquartered in Brooklyn, NY. A longtime entrepreneur, he specializes in creating strategic marketing solutions and business-boosting tactics to help small businesses achieve higher levels of success. To learn more, follow Meny Hoffman on Twitter or email him at meny.hoffman@ptexgroup.com.    

Would you like to discover how to triple your sales, cut your marketing spending by 90% and work fewer hours - all at the same time? Of course you would! To discover how to one entrepreneur has done exactly that, I interview Janette Gleason in this episode of the Bright Ideas podcast. When you listen to this interview, you will hear Janette and I discuss: how they nearly went out of business before finally getting their marketing systems on track what they changed with their marketing how automation using Infusionsoft plays a large role her 12 stage sales pipeline and so much more... More About This Episode The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business. It's designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today - all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big. Watch Now Download and Listen Later Transcript Trent Dyrsmid: Hi there, and thank you so much for joining me for this episode of the Bright Ideas podcast. I'm your host, Trent Dyrsmid, and this is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to learn how to use marketing automation and sales automation tactics to massively boost their business.On the show with me today is a woman by the name of Janette Gleason, and her and her husband own a small tax and accounting firm. Now, a couple of years ago they were spending about $15,000.00 a month on marketing, and they nearly went bankrupt. Then, thanks to deploying a new piece of software, called Infusionsoft, which has helped them greatly with their marketing, not only were they able to cut that marketing budget by 90%, but they were able to triple their revenue in the process, work less and get more dinners at home together.If you're a small business owner, and you're struggling with marketing, and you're looking for some inspiration as well as some specific tactics and tools you can use to massively boost your business, this is an episode that you do not want to miss.Please join me in welcoming Janette to the show.Janette, thank you so much for coming on to do this interview with me and talk about how you are using Infusionsoft to make your business so much more successful. I really appreciate you making the time to be on the show with me.Janette Gleason: You're welcome. Thank you for having me.Trent: For the audience who doesn't know who you are, let's first of all give you an opportunity to just talk real quickly about what your business is, and then we're going to talk at length about how using Infusionsoft has really helped you move the business forward.Janette: Okay. My husband and I own a financial planning firm in Surprise, Arizona, and we our target clients are retirees, people who are 50 and older, and we do their financial planning, retirement planning, income planning, and we also offer tax preparation services.Trent: Okay. In your space, in your area, is there a lot of competition?Janette: Oh, yes.Trent: Plenty.Janette: My husband's name is Joe, and we joke how we're kind of like the Starbuck's. There's a financial planner on every corner.Trent: If you had to guess, how well do you think your firm is doing relative to that all the other "Starbuck's" that are on the block? Are you guys in the middle?Janette: Yes, I think we're doing really well. We've really worked very hard on building a good reputation. Always treating our clients with respect and always doing what's best for them and not what's going to always make us the most money, but what's best for them and their retirement. I think that reputation has served us well, and we get a lot of referrals, and we stand out from the crowd that way.Trent: Okay, so you're doing better than average?Janette: Yes.Trent: All right.

On this episode of the BrightIdeas podcast, we're joined by Sean Malarkey, creator of a digital publishing and marketing company, and author of the blog and podcast The Money Pillow. Sean relies heavily on his team to help him run his digital publishing company so that he has plenty of time left to do important things such as surf daily from his home in Santa Barbara. Do you think that his business might suffer without him spending much time running it each day? Not true. The company continues to return year over year growth of around 30%, and is set to gross approximately $2 million this year. In other words, Sean has a great business that prospers without requiring much of his presence. You could almost say, it works while he sleeps! And yes, that's what he was going for in this business, and also the concept he talks about with his guests on The Money Pillow podcast. In this interview, you'll hear Sean and I talk about: (2:00) How his team helps him out (4:00) An overview of his audience (5:45) The Money Pillow (12:20) His podcast launch (17:00) An explanation of how he's going to extract the Golden Nuggets from his past episodes (20:30) How to monetize a podcast (25:50) How he's promoting his podcast (29:00) How to decide if you should have a show (31:00) How he finds his guests (36:17) What his team looks like (44:30) How he's building his team (49:20) Team-building advice (1:00:00) An overview of the publishing company, and how he launched it (1:08:00) How they are generating traffic and sales Resources Mentioned More About This Episode The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business. It's designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today - all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big. Listen Now Transcript Trent: Hey there, bright idea hunters. It's Trent Dyrsmid here. I am the host of the Bright Ideas Podcast, and this is the podcast for really whip-smart entrepreneurs who want to know how to use online marketing and marketing automation to massively boost their business. On the show with me today is a guy who is definitely a whip- smart entrepreneur. His name is Sean Malarkey. He's the guy behind the Money Pillow, which is a new podcast. He's also got a book for it. The Money Pillow is definitely not Sean's first rodeo. He actually runs a very successful online digital publishing business that works with content experts, and takes their knowledge, and makes it available to business owners like yourself who want to get better in a specific area of their business. Now, I am super stoked to have Sean on the show because he is doing some really cool things with the Money Pillow podcasts and the guests that he's unearthing. In particular, we're going to talk about how he launched the podcast and made it so incredibly successful so very quickly. With that said, please join me in welcoming Sean to the show. Hey, Sean. Welcome to the show. Sean: Thanks for having me, man. It's an honor to be here. Trent: Absolutely. It's an honor to have you on here. For the folks who have not had the privilege of speaking with you off the air for the last 45 minutes, maybe you would be so kind as to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you're doing. Sean: Sure. My name is Sean Malarkey and GQ just voted me one of the top 50 most handsome men in the world. No, I'm just kidding. I have a really boring story, I guess. I don't where to even begin, but what I do now is I have a publishing company and a marketing company. We publish and market digital trainings, so we find experts that are good with particular things, and we have them create the content,

Are you having trouble keeping your customers and website visitors interested in your site? Do you want to learn a content creation model that answers the questions of your site visitors and target customers? To learn how to quickly turn your one time website visitors into your followers, I interview Andrew Warner. More About This Episode The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business. It's designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today - all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big. In this episode, I interview Andrew Warner of Mixergy.com. Watch Now Download and Listen Later Here are some of the things you'll discover in this episode: Turning One-time Visitors into Loyal Followers and Customers with Interviews An Easy Content Creation System to Land Followers and Leads People always want some form of content to satisfy their needs and curiosity about a particular topic. It is through the content that you provide that your audience engages your site, your products and your services.  It is content that turns your one-time visitors into loyal followers. Listen to the show to discover how Andrew approaches content creation for small business owners. Andrew's Top Email Registration Strategy In order to have people see your content again and again, it's super helpful if they give you their contact information so you can reach out to them. Andrew gets more than 100 new subscribers to his mailing list every day. He does this with one simple strategy. Listen to the show to learn what this powerful strategy is and incorporate it in your site today. Head Game: It Changes Everything Sometimes, setbacks are going to challenge your business. There are times when they are minor and are easily manageable, then there are times when they are “end of the world” big. Listen as Andrew describes how he manages the setbacks that he has experienced in the course of his business. About Andrew Andrew Warner is  only in his 20s, but he already has a big success under his belt - a $30 million internet business with his younger brother. He started out with online greeting cards and is now focusing on interviewing successful entrepreneurs on his Mixergy.com website. He created Mixergy to help ambitious people who love business as much as he does.

Are you looking for a way to drive more traffic to your website? Would you like to learn a content creation strategy that has been proven to work by one of the most popular business blogs on the planet? To discover how the Social Media Examiner became the #2 most popular business blog in the USA, I interview Mike Stelzner in this episode of the Bright Ideas podcast. More About This Episode The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business. It's designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today - all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big. In this episode, I interview Mike Stelzner, founder of the Social Media Examiner. Watch Now Download and Listen Later Transcript Trent Dyrsmid: Hi there! Thanks very much for joining me on the Bright Ideas podcast. I'm your host, Trent Dyrsmid. And this is the podcast for marketing agency owners and professional owners who want to discover what is working when it comes to online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively boost their business.On this episode my guest is Mike Stelzner, founder of SocialMediaExaminer.com. Now if you haven't heard of Social Media Examiner before it is ranked on Technoratis the no. 2 most popular blog for small business owners. Now in this particular interview we're gonna be talking about Mike's new book and it's called Launch. It's a book that had a profound impact on my own business plan and that was one of the reasons why I wanted to ask himi to come on the show with me.During this interview you're gonna hear Mike and I talk a lot about content marketing and in particular the 2 different types of content that he talks about on his book. One of them is called primary fuel and the other is called nuclear fuel. Now this nuclear fuel this is some really, really interesting stuff and Mike and I had a great conversation about it so you wanna be sure to hang around till the very end of the podcast so that you can get all the details on how you can use nuclear fuel to massively boost the amount of traffic that's coming to your website. You're really gonna love thsi episode so please join me in welcoming Mike to the show.Alright Mike thank you so much for making the time to come and do this interview with me. It's a real pleasure and an honor to have you on the show. Mike Stelzner: Thanks for having me Trent. T: So I obviously, let me start off with this, for the people who don't know who Mike Stelzner is, it's probably a small group of people, but who are you and what do you do Mike? M: You'd be surprised there's a lot of people that don't know who I am. I am a publisher. And what I do is give away great content to help empower people to figure out social media. SocialMediaExaminer.com is my website. So that's a short and simple answer. T: Okay. So, and again for people who maybe not have heard of your site, how successful is it? Is it big? Is it popular? M: I'd like to think it is. Popularity and bigness is all relative but we have about a 185,000 email subscribers that get our daily emails. And more than half a million people that visit the site. So I'd say relatively big in the business world for sure, in the marketing world. T: Absolutely, those are very impressive numbers. So I wanted to get that out really quick so that the people coz I know I always do this when I start listening to a podcast, the little voice in your head is like I'm pressed for time, why am I listening, is this somebody I wanna listen to? M: Right. T: So this is very clearly an interview that I've really been looking forward to. And so for the folks who are listening who haven't heard of Mike yet this is an interview you wanna stay tuned for.So you've got a book which I read,

Do you think you could start with nothing and build a 7 figure local marketing agency in your first year? If you follow Graig Presti's advice, you sure can. Graig Presti started his local marketing consulting business and did something different than most: he chose to offer his services only to dentists…and by doing so, he grew top line revenue to 7 figures in year one…and has increased it to $3.5 Million in year 3. When you consider that most local marketing consultants really struggle to attract clients, Graig's accomplishments are nothing short of amazing. In this interview, you'll hear Graig and I talk about: (2:17) Introductions (3:47) The results he's getting (automating all sales) (7:47) Why he picked dentists (12:17) How he generates leads, and his sales funnel (14:47) How he builds a list; using sponsored email, direct mail, LinkedIn, and JV partners (17:47) The lead magnet he uses: Google Review Cheat Sheets (19:27) How leads are nurtured (22:17) How he's using webinars (30:57) How he converts webinar attendees to customers (32:37) An overview of his product offerings (41:17) The downside of continuity (43:37) Where his customers are located (45:17) How he leverages the telephone (52:17) How to get others to send email sponsoring you (57:17) How he's using direct mail (58:17) How he uses postcards with personalized landing pages (1:04:17) How he's running ads on LinkedIn (1:08:17) How long it took him to get his ad spend back (1:11:57) How long it took him to get his first client (1:18:27) The benefits of a Mastermind Links LocalSearchForDentists.com Infusionsoft Brian Horn Private Website Link 7 Figure Local Marketer Best Buyer Formula Additional Resources   More About This Episode The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business. It's designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today - all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big. Listen Now Transcript Trent: Hey there, bright idea hunters. Welcome to the Bright Ideas podcast. I'm your host, Trent Dyrsmid, and this is the podcast for marketing agencies and entrepreneurs who want to discover how to use content marketing and marketing automation to massively boost their business. On the show with me today is an entrepreneur by the name of Graig Presti. He's the founder of localsearchfordentists.com and you are in for a real treat in this interview because I ask Greg a truckload of questions and I drilled down for detail on all of them. He's going to explain to you how he built his local marketing company that serves dentists. He did a million dollars in his first year. Three years in, he's doing almost $4 million a year. His profit margins are off the charts. He's got hundreds of customers, and he has automated virtually the entire sales process. I shouldn't say "virtually the entire" -- he's automated the entire sales process and so attracting new clients for him is not a challenge. When you listen to this interview, you're going to hear exactly what he does. There are gold nuggets galore in this interview. Before we get to that, I very quickly want to tell you about the Conversion Tactics Toolkit at brightideas.co. I do a much better job than the average website at converting my site visitors into subscribers and then those subscribers get converted within my marketing funnel into customers. In the Conversion Tactics Toolkit, which is a four-part video series, I'm going to open up the kimono. I'm going to show you exactly how I do it all. It's all free. All you've got to do is go to brightideas.co, enter your e-mail address, and you'll get your first video right away. So with all of that said,

Do you think you need a fancy website, and business card, and plenty of startup capital to start a business? If you do, you're dead wrong. Sam Ovens started his marketing consulting business with no clue of what he was going to sell, no idea who would buy it, no idea how he'd actually deliver the work, and with no savings to speak of. In this interview, you'll hear Sam and I talk about: (4:37) His number of customers and revenue (8:00) His background, and how he got started (10:30) His start as a marketing consultant (13:00) How he used email to get his first clients (16:00) How success led to more success (19:00) How he made $10,000 sales, and closed $20,000 deals with $3k/mo in retainer fees (23:00) How he used lumpy mail to find his leads (25:30) How he delivered services using elance (30:30) How he transitioned to a trusted advisor (34:30) The difference between a service business and a product business (38:30) The cons of a product business (40:00) The cost of version 1 (42:00) His Big Business mindset (48:00) How he used Idea Extraction to get his rich niche to tell him their pain (51:00) How he researched Property Management (58:00) Mistakes he made along the way Links SnapInspect SamOvens.com Best Buyer Formula More About This Episode The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business. It's designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today - all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big. Listen Now Transcript Trent: Hey there, bright idea hunters. Welcome to the Bright Ideas podcast. I'm your host, Trent Dyrsmid, and this is the podcast for marketing consultants, marketing agencies, and entrepreneurs who want to discover how to use content marketing and marketing automation to massively boost their business. On the show with me today is an entrepreneur by the name of Sam Ovens. Sam is the founder of a very rapidly-growing company by the name of SnapInspect. Just over a year ago, Sam barely even knew what an entrepreneur was. He literally had to actually Google the term when he first discovered it and that was a little bit longer ago. With that said, this interview, if you are a new entrepreneur looking for a business to start or you are already a marketing consultant looking to grow your business, this interview is going to be absolutely a mind-blower for you. I don't want to sound too hype-y, but I took so many notes for myself when I was doing this interview with Sam that I absolutely promise that if you invest the time to listen to it, you are going to come away from this interview with some of the most valuable insights possible that will literally be for you, as they were for Sam, massive game-changers. His app, his company, SnapInspect -- so a year ago, nothing, didn't exist. He had to figure out how to find the idea, how to get it built, how to pay for it, and then how to turn it into a very healthy six-figure business and he did all of that in just over a year. And keep in mind, beforehand, this guy barely even knew what an entrepreneur was. So get some pen and paper, sit down. You are absolutely going to love this interview. Before I get to it, I want to really quickly tell you about something if you're listening, if you're not yet a Bright Ideas subscriber, I've got a new four-part video series called the Conversion Tactics Toolbox. It teaches you -- shows you, actually; it's free--exactly how I get bright ideas to add so many subscribers every day to my newsletter list and therefore my marketing funnel and, of course, that causes products to sell. Go sign up at brightideas.co. So, with that said, get ready, here we go. This is going to be a really

Are you looking for proven small business marketing tactics that you can use to get more customers? Do you always feel like you are just one more customer away from going from "scraping by" to "nicely profitable"? To discover how to "pumpkin plan" your business so that you can finally start turning the profits you desire, I interview Mike Michalowicz for this episode of the Bright Ideas Podcast. More About This Episode The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business. It's designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today - all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big. The show format is on-demand talk radio  - commonly known as podcasting. In this episode, I interview Mike Michalowicz, author of The Pumpkin Plan: A Simple Strategy to Grow a Remarkable Business in Any Field. Watch Now Download and Listen Later Transcript An Interview with Mike MichalowiczTrent Dyrsmid: Hey there! Thank you so much for joining me to the Bright Ideas podcast. I'm your host Trent Dyrsmid and this is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively boost their business. If you're running a business and feel like your revenue is kinda stuck, you know you get to that plateau and you're not exactly sure what to do to get it higher and everything you do, trying to do this, doesn't seem to work.Well, you're gonna love this episode because in it my guest is gonna share what he calls his pumpkin plan for collosal entrepreneurs and he's gonna explain how he used this plan to grow his most recent business, the one he sold last, from zero to $7,500,000 in a very short period of time. Next, we all want customers. We all want more customers and we all know that getting referrals is by far the easiest way to get new customers. The problem is that asking for referrals doesn't generally work. Well, my guest has an amazing solution for that as well. He calls it his root system referral strategy and he never ask his customers for a referral. The results however are pretty amazing, 75 new customers in a very short period of time. So please join me in welcoming a two time author, his name is Mike Michalowicz. He's the author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur and The Pumpkin Plan. He's a multi-company founder with several successful exits under his belt and he's now on his 3rd business. All around interesting guy, very smart cookie, really enjoyable to have him on the show and I hope that you will enjoy listening to the interview as much as I did creating it. Please join me in welcoming Mike to the show.Alright everybody, hey it's Trent here with Bright Ideas and I wanna welcome a very special guest, Mike Michalowicz to the show. Mike, thanks so much for doing this interview with me. Mike Michalowicz: I love it brother, I appreciate it. Thank you for inviting me to be here. T: No problem at all. So Mike, you wrote a couple of books now and as I mentioned in our pre-interview chat we had a whole lot in common. So your first book was Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. Your 2nd book was The Pumpkin Plan and all I wanna say is where were you when I was running my last business because I was growing a patch of pumpkins, not a big one. M: Yeah I hear you. I feel the same way. I have these books behind me over there. Same thing everytime I read a book, my god, if only I had that 5 years ago, damn it. T: Yeah. M: So it wasn't meant to be I guess. T: Yeah exactly. So the reason I asked you to do this interview is because as I mentioned we both ran these technology services companies. You, obviously much smarter than me, came up with this idea of The Pumpkin Plan and you really,

Do you know exactly which pieces of content are producing the most revenue for you? If you did, you do think that would help you to better understand the needs and wants of your audience? Of course it would. As a matter of fact, getting that kind of insight would be hugely valuable because it would allow you to create even more of the types of content that are driving the most revenue in your business. How to Tie Revenue Back to Content Using Analytics tracking links and custom campaigns is incredibly valuable when it comes to giving you insight into which pieces of content are producing the most revenue and new subscribers. To see a specific example of how to do this, have a look at this post. When you listen to this fascinating and informative interview, you are going to hear Katy and I talk about: (03:54) How La Costa Increased revenue by 65% via Social Media (7:00) How Katy uses Google Analytics to track revenue and tie it directly to content (14:20) How Katy is split testing Facebook ads (21:20) How Katy's team increased revenue from email marketing by 54% (24:00) How Katy segments her mailing list (25:00) How Katy is managing her editorial calendar (28:00) How Katy is using re-targeting to increase revenue (32:00) How Katy is using Twitter chats to increase engagement Links Google URL Builder La Costa Resort's Instagram Contest La Costa Resorts Facebook Page Adroll Cendyn Additional Resources Mentioned Below is a screenshot of La Costa Resorts custom campaign tracking. Below is a screenshot of Katy's  editorial calendar for email. Below is the screenshot of how we use Google calendar to manage our editorial calendar. Green items are done. Red items are "to do" and yellow (not shown in this screenshot) signify "in progress". Oh..and blue signifies Liz and I's wedding :) More About This Episode The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business. It's designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today - all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big. Listen Now About Katy Harrison Katy Harrison is the Online Marketing Manager at La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, CA. She manages the luxury resort’s website, email campaign, social media and online presence. Originally from South Shore, MA, Katy moved to San Diego for the year-round beach weather in 2007. Prior to her role at La Costa Resort, Katy honed her PR and social media skills working at a reputable downtown San Diego PR and advertising agency with clients including The San Diego Museum of Art, Del Mar Racetrack, NTN Buzztime and BillMyParents. Follow Katy on Twitter: @OmniLaCosta

Mike Worley is probably the most loyal listener I've ever met. He's listened to every single episode of the BrightIdeas podcast! Here's a snippet from an email he sent to me... First of all just got to thank you for all the value that you have provided through Bright Ideas. For the past 3 yrs I have had 2 hrs of driving a day as I was leading the marketing efforts for a Publishing company in Colorado. I have listened to every single podcast that you have done and can't thank you enough as it has helped me to take the entrepreneurial leap in starting my own marketing agency in the last month. With your help and a few other influential podcaster's I'm launching the agency (Clymb Marketing: http://www.clymbmarketing.com/) with 5 retainer clients July 1st and will potentially double my salary in the first six months. I have also launched a non-profit that is teaching 100 teenagers in Colorado how to start there own sustainable business' as well http://teenstartupchallenge.com/ ....I'm still boot strapping but would be way behind the curve if it wasn't for the incredible content that you have created so thank you!! When I saw how much success he was having I immediately asked him to come onto the show and explain how he's accomplished what he has. More About This Episode The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business. It's designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today - all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big. Listen Now Transcript Trent: Hey there, bright idea hunters. Welcome to the Bright Ideas podcast. I'm your host, Trent Dyrsmid, and this is the podcast for marketing agencies and entrepreneurs who want to discover how to use content marketing and marketing automation to massively boost their business.On the show with me today is a guy by the name of Mike Worley. Mike has been listening to Bright Ideas as a matter of fact since day one. He's listened to every single episode. I got an email from him today, and he was explaining to me how he just put in this notice with his job. He's started an agency, and he's already got five clients on retainer, which absolutely blew my mind. He had a whole bunch of questions for me, so I said to him, "Let's do the Q&A as a podcast episode, because I'm sure there are some other people out there who would love to quit their jobs and would love to know exactly what it was that you learned and how you got through this whole process and how you started an agency with a brand new baby, no less." This is really going to be a fantastic episode. Before we get to that, I want to tell you about a product I recently launched, which was a huge success, called the MobiLead Method. You can get to it at the TheMobiLeadMethod.com. This was a product where I'm teaching people who want to start a marketing agency on how to find and attract customers. Please join me in welcoming Mike to the show. Hey, Mike. Welcome to the show. Mike: Thanks, Trent. Honored to be here. Trent: You wrote me a very interesting email that I have to say really kind of choked me up and I want to thank you for that. For the folks that didn't have the privilege of reading that email, I'm just going to let you, more or less, summarize what you wrote to me. That's why this interview is taking place. Mike: Yeah, not a problem. For the last three years, I have been driving anywhere from two to three hours a day working for a publishing company as a marketer, and have been doing content marketing, social media coaching for authors, and big book projects, and such. During that commute, I have taken it to try and create my own MBA process. Part of that was listening to