The Bright Ideas eCommerce Podcast | Proven Entrepreneur Success Stories

Did you watch Steve Job's 2007 iPhone launch presentation? It was the stuff of legend. Sadly, when it comes to creating presentations, most people totally suck. They mash together a deck of slides full of bullet points and proceed to bore their audience to tears. This is not the winning approach and if this sounds even remotely close to what you have done in the past, this interview is not to be missed…unless of course, you don't mind giving lousy presentations. In this episode of the Bright Ideas podcast, I'm joined by one of the leading presentation experts of our time, Nancy Duarte, CEO of Duarte, a 110-employee firm that creates presentations for some of the world's leading brands. When you listen to this episode, you are going to hear Nancy share with me: her most significant insights on how to create effective presentations that sell how to incorporate a story into your presentation (and why you will fail if you don't) the #1 mistake that most people make when creating and delivering a presentation an analysis of Steve Job's 2007 iPhone launch presentation and why it worked so well how to lay the groundwork for your next presentation how to brainstorm and organize your ideas how to ensure that you deliver a presentation that your audience will never forget why having a STAR moment is so important And so much more... Great content marketing is made so much better by great content delivery. Learn from an expert how to make your delivery stellar. 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 Nancy Duarte Nancy Duarte is a communication expert who has been featured in Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, Wired, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Economist, LA Times and on CNN. Her firm, Duarte, Inc., is the global leader behind some of the most influential visual messages in business and culture and has created more than a quarter of a million presentations. As a persuasion specialist, she cracked the code for effectively incorporating story patterns into business communications. Resonate, her second book, spent nearly a year on Amazon’s top 100 business book bestsellers list. Duarte, Inc. is the largest design firm in Silicon Valley, the 5th largest woman-owned employer, and made the 2012 Silicon Valley’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies list. Nancy has won several prestigious awards for communications and entrepreneurship and was recently honored in Watermark’s “Women Who Have Made Their Mark 2011” ceremony. She has been a speaker at a number of Fortune 500 companies and counts many more among her firm’s clientele. She also speaks at business schools and teaches classes at Stanford University several times a year. Nancy has 20 years of experience working with global companies and thought leaders, and she has influenced how the world perceives some of the most important brands and entities, including Apple, Cisco, Facebook, GE, Google, HP, TED, Twitter, and the World Bank. She is the author of two award-winning books. Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences identifies the hidden story structures inherent in great communication, and it spent more than 300 days on Amazon’s top 100 business book bestsellers list. Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations teaches readers to think visually and has been translated into eight languages. Her third book, released in the fall of 2012, is titled HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations, which gives readers the tools and confidence they need to master public speaking.

Do you run a marketing agency and want more new business? Are you getting frustrated with outbound prospecting strategies that just aren't working like they used to? Would you like to create an inbound marketing system that provided you with a steady flow of new qualified leads? If you answered yes to these questions, you are going to love the step by step new business development strategy that my guest and I talk about in interview. In this episode of the Bright Ideas podcast, I'm joined by Michael Gass, the man behind Fuel Lines, a blog that has been ranked among the top 100 marketing blogs in the world by Ad Age's Power 150. When you listen to this interview, you are going to hear Michael and I talk about: the #1 mistake that 99% of agencies make when it comes to new business why they make this mistake and a risk free way to avoid it several examples of how Michael's clients used his advice to land new accounts they otherwise never would have how Michael has used his own advice to build his own firm (and he's never made a single cold call to do it) how social media plays a role in Michael's strategy the 5 steps that you need to take to get started Michael's favorite tool for building a large, targeted Twitter following in just 60 days Michael's favorite tool for scheduling his social media activities how much time per day you should spending on social media the specific activities you should be using social media for how to effectively network online, so you can run your business from anywhere in the world you like 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. Listen Now Transcript Trent Dyrsmid: Hey there, bright idea hunters. Welcome to the Bright Ideas Podcast. I am your host, Trent Dyrsmid, and this is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to better learn how to learn online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively boost their business and the way that we do that is we bring expert guests onto the show to share with us precisely what is working for them in their businesses.And my guest today is a fellow by the name of Michael Gass. He is an international new business consultant to advertising, digital media, and PR agencies and since 2007, he has led in the use of social media and content marketing strategies to make agency new business easier. He's the founder of Fuel Lines, which has been rated among the top 100 marketing blogs in the world according to Ad Agencies Power 150. Michael, thank you so much for making some time to come here and be a guest on the Bright Ideas Podcast. Michael Gass: I'm glad to, Trent. Trent: So, for the folks have not yet heard of you, I'm sure you've probably got a little bit better of an introduction than what I just rattled off, so maybe you could just tell us a little bit about who you are and what it is that you do. Michael: I've been in business development my entire advertising career and I had the bright idea of starting my own consultancy, but little did I know that I was doing it on the verge of a great recession. Most agencies that I worked with, there was a commonality of problems. They had a very difficult time with positioning. Positioning, in my opinion is the foundation of your business and they never used the tools that they recommended their clients to use. It was almost as if promoting their agency, they lost their marketing line [sounds like 02:10] and I had always preached that they needed to have an identifiable target in a narrow

As entrepreneurs, it's a pretty regular part of our journey to have to deal with adversity. The problem is that sometimes, the challenges we face can leave us feeling totally overwhelmed, confused, and alone. If we are to be successful when dark times like this appear, we need to quickly move past them - but how do we do it? In this episode of the Bright Ideas podcast, I'm joined by Ray Hilbert, co-author of the best selling business book, "The Janitor". I read Ray's book a few years ago and absolutely loved it, so when I had a chance to have Ray on the show, I couldn't pass it up. During the conversation that I had with Ray, you are going to hear us talk about: how he nearly lost all his money and his marriage when things in one of his companies went really bad how the period of adversity led him to make some pretty big realizations and what he did as a result the new organization that he created and how this organization is helping over 700 other business owners to succeed the six principles in his book and so much more…. If you are experiencing a challenging time in your business or your life then Ray's book, and this interview, are well worth checking out. 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 Ray Hilbert Ray is the CEO and Co-Founder of TRUTH @ WORK, a not-for-profit ministry, founded in 1998, whose mission is to “change the way America works by bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ to the marketplace." Truth@Work specializes in helping Christian business owners and leaders build strong organizations and integrate their faith into the marketplace, through leadership and business development programs that are built on biblical principles and practices. Ray is also a highly sought after speaker at churches and retreats across America, where for years he has challenged followers of Christ to integrate their faith in and through the marketplace on a daily basis. He is also part of the speaking faculty for Orlando, Florida based “Man In the Mirror” ministry where he conducts seminars and retreats across the country. Along with his close friend Todd Hopkins, Ray has co-authored a novel titled “The Janitor-How An Unexpected Friendship Transformed A CEO And His Company.” It has already become an international bestseller in South Korea, with over 350,000 copies sold and hit U.S. shelves in July 2007 through Thomas Nelson publishers. The book features the story of a young CEO mentored by a godly janitor who teaches the struggling young business executive the true definition of success and business. You can learn more about Ray and contact him at rayhilbert.com.

Do you run a service business whose brand is brought to life through interaction with people? Would you like to be able to communicate your company's story via content marketing in a way that significantly enhances the experience of both your customers and your employees and differentiates you in a competitive marketplace - ultimately leading to a more prosperous business with happier employees? If you've answered yes, then this interview is one that you need to hear - because if you skip this one, you just might miss out on one heck of a golden nugget at the 3/4 mark! In this episode of the Bright Ideas podcast, I'm joined by Bill Baker, founder of BB&Co - a strategic storytelling consulting firm. What is strategic storytelling, you ask? Strategic Storytelling offers an inclusive, bottom-up approach to branding, taking into account a wide array of perspectives (executives, employees, customers, stakeholders, relevant thought leaders) and vantage points (past, present, future). It builds narrative around your brand, clarifying what distinguishes it, what drives it ideologically, how it comes to life experientially and the roles it plays in people’s lives. Ultimately, it reaches further than a tagline or mission statement could ever do on its own, making real something that is often intangible for people, helping them fully grasp the essence of your brand and how it comes to life at every level. When you listen to the conversation that I have with Bill, you are going to learn: why storytelling has become so incredibly popular how strategic storytelling differs from regular storytelling, and how knowing the difference can significantly impact your results the process (called Storyfinding) that Bill uses to help his client to uncover their unique story how he used strategic storytelling to help his client positively impact their brand how leaders can use storytelling to strengthen the effectiveness of their communications how I plan to use what I learned in this interview to improve an upcoming talk that I'm giving Admittedly, strategic storytelling is somewhat of a murky topic that will be a bit "touchy feely" for some. Those that know me well already know that with every interview that I record, I have the goal is delivering a concrete and actionable "golden nugget", and, after a bit of a slow start (my fault), this interview really delivers, so make sure you carve out the time to listen to it during your next commute. 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 Bill Baker Bill Baker – the founder and principal of BB&Co – works with various companies and organizations all over the world to help them in their leadership development and training efforts. More specifically, Bill coaches managers and executives to help them understand how storytelling can enable them to be better communicators and, in the process, better leaders. Whether a one-time event or an on-going part of a professional development program, Bill's seminars and workshops can be custom-tailored to meet any organization's needs. To find out more about storytelling could fit into your professional development programs, contact Bill directly at bill@billbakerandco.com.

As the host of Bright Ideas, I get to interview a lot of very successful people and every time I do I have one goal: to totally knock your socks off. I want the interview to be so good that you just can't help but tell everyone you know about it. Today's interview with Viveka von Rosen on how to ignite your content marketing with LinkedIn is one such interview. It was so full of golden nuggets that I had to take two full pages of notes! When you listen to this interview, you are going to learn: how to prospect without EVER making another cold call again how to develop a killer LinkedIn strategy so that it doesn't turn into yet "another" social network that just sucks up your time the #1 mistake to avoid when building your network (make this mistake and you can never recover from it) 2 killer LinkedIn hacks that will allow you to connect with whoever you want without having a premium account what I was doing wrong with my profile and how I fixed it how to become a master with groups so that you exponentially increase your reach how to find the keywords that you should be targeting, and then what to do (and what NOT to do) with them how to create a ninja boolean search to find just the right prospects for your products how to leverage LinkedIn signals to keep a watchful eye on what people are saying about you and your competition how to ensure that your profile is configured for maximum benefit and so much more!! LinkedIn is a powerful business tool that you can use to make valuable connections for yourself and your company. Do not skip this interview! 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 Viveka von Rosen Viveka von Rosen started using LinkedIn in 2006 when she saw a presentation on the opportunities of Business Networking with LinkedIn. Having doubled her own business with F2F networking, she saw the immense potential of a business online networking site. Viveka is known internationally as the “LinkedIn Expert” and speaks to business owners, corporations, Legal Firms and associations on the benefits of marketing with social media, and in particular LinkedIn. Author of  “LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour A Day” for John Wiley & Sons, she is also a regular source on LinkedIn for prestigious news outlets such as Mashable.com, TheSocialMediaExaminer.com and The Miami Herald.  She is the host of the biggest LinkedIn chat on Twitter: #LinkedInChat (Recently quoted by Mashable as one of the top 10 business blogs) and co-moderator of LinkedStrategies, the largest LinkedIn strategy group on LinkedIn.

Are you looking for ways to increase the return on your content marketing investment? Would you like to discover actionable tactics that you can immediately put into use in your business? Stephen Woessner has helped thousands of clients over the course of 20 years, and he's collected enough data to be able to confidently predict ROI so that his clients can achieve the maximum impact from their online marketing activities. In this episode of the Bright Ideas podcast, Stephen is going to share exactly what to pay attention to so that you too can predict (and maximize) your own marketing ROI. In our discussion, you will hear us talk about: the #1 mistake that most businesses make when creating their content marketing plan the best online marketing activities to use for immediate profit (if you're not doing these, you should be) the importance of measuring baselines and how to do it which metrics you need to be paying attention to and why how to create customer anticipation how his clients are using social media to give a huge boost to their marketing results his favorite business book 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. 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 business owners and marketers who want to understand how to use online marketing and sales automation to massively boost their business. And in this very episode, we are going to talk with my guest about how he's helping his clients to massively, and I mean massively, boost their business, guaranteed no less. So I've got to get lots of answers to those questions because in the . . . I think this is going to be a really interesting interview. So my guest is Stephen, and I didn't ask you how to pronounce your last name so I'm sure I'm going to butcher it, but I'm going to take a guess. Woessner? Stephen: It's Woessner. Trent: Woessner, all right. And Stephen is the founder and president of a company by the name of Predictive ROI, and he is also the author of two top books in the digital marketing space. So Stephen, or rather Steve . . . by the way, do you prefer Steve or Stephen? I think we had our first bandwidth glitch. Did you prefer Steve or Stephen? Stephen: Either's fine, it doesn't matter. Trent: Okay, so Steve, welcome to the show and hopefully we won't have any more bandwidth glitches like that. All right, so just tell us a little bit about who you are and what do you do? Because I don't imagine too many of my audience is familiar with you or possibly even your company. Stephen: Okay. Well, so for the last 20 years, really since the advent of commercial Internet, I've been collecting tens of thousands of data points that have given me the ability to identify what I call the seven money drainers, and those are the things that literally cause websites to leak serious money every day. And what we do is we teach business owners how to fix them, and how to fix them immediately, and then how to apply what I call the eight money-making opportunities. And those are the things that really drive profits online by 200 to 500% or more in 12 months or less. And then as you mentioned in the introduction, we take it even further by then guaranteeing to our personal consultant clients that they're going to deliver or receive X for return on investment, and typically it's 200 to 300% although we're working on some engagements where believe it or not it's about 1,

Would you like to fire all your clients and completely re-invent your business if doing so was going to give you more freedom and more profits? Would you like to use content marketing to attract new customers? That is exactly what Laura Roeder did. Two years ago, Laura was a web designer, working from home earning just shy of $100,000. Today, her company is doing just over $1M, she has four employees, and she runs her company while traveling the world. Suffice to say, she's got a lot more freedom (and money) today than she did two years ago - thanks largely to a shift in her strategy and the use of Infusionsoft. In this episode of the Bright Ideas podcast, Laura is going to share with me exactly how she made the transformation. In our discussion, you will hear the two of us talk about: how to create business fame and why it's so important how to garner the attention of major media outlets her (very successful) guest posting strategy how she attracted so many people to write for her blog how and why she repurposes much of her content how she's built her team of superstars how content marketing has played a huge role in her traffic generation her business model and the software she's using to run it how she determines which courses to create and how she creates them how she is working towards being more metrics driven how she is using Google analytics and Kiss metrics to help her make better decisions her favorite blogs her favorite book 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 About Laura Roeder Laura Roeder is a social media marketing expert who teaches small businesses how to become well-known and claim their brand online. She is the creator of LKR Social Media Marketer and Creating Fame and author of Facebook Fame: The Facebook Marketing Bible For The Small Business.

Would you like to dramatically increase the effectiveness of your marketing without spending a fortune or working 24 x 7? Would it be helpful to hear directly from folks who eat and breathe marketing automation? In this episode of the Bright Ideas podcast, I'm joined by Kimi Fowler, a marketing automation specialist with Hyland Software - a large company that provides Enterprise Content Management (ECM) software to over 10,000 customers. Kimi is one of two people who builds about 25 new campaigns a week, so when it comes to automation, she's been there and done that more times than you can count. In our conversation, Kimi and I discuss the following: an overview of how she is using marketing automation to increase conversions how webinars are playing a role in their sales funnel the impact of A/B testing subjects lines (it was huge) and how they did it how she uses Twitter to find and connect with other automation specialists how they are converting cold traffic how lead scoring is having an impact on sales the surprising fact they discovered about landing pages after conducting some split testing 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 About Kimi Fowler Kimi Fowler is a marketing automation specialist at Hyland Software in Westlake, Ohio. She is a passionate marketing automation user who focuses on the execution of programs, governance, administration of the system and best practices. You can contact Kimi on Twitter at @kimikay.

Have you ever taken a moment to think about what makes Apple, Amazon, DropBox, Zappos, and GoDaddy so successful? Each of them is well known for one particular thing. Take DropBox, for example. Early on they realized that the only way to compete was to create a viral signup process. Judging from the fact that everyone and their dog is now using DropBox, I'd say they got it right. What do you think these other companies are so well known for? In today's episode of the Bright Ideas podcast, I'm joined by Chris Brisson, CEO of Call Loop - a fast growing software company that integrates services you already use to help grow your subscriber base automatically, while making it easy to send targeted voice and text messages. Call Loop was just awarded best in class for online sales by Infusionsoft for their 2013 Ultimate Marketer Awards, and I asked Chris to be on the show to share what he's doing and why it's working so well. In Chris and I's conversation, you are going to hear us talk about: his sales funnel and why his firm was selected as best in class for online sales why he chose each of these well know companies to model which part of each company he is modeling where he's spending time to discover their strategies how he's using their strategies in his own marketing automation how he is using webinars to generate sales which software tools he's using to automate every step of the pre-webinar and post-webinar process why multi-channel marketing is so important how to get started with marketing automation and Infusionsoft and so much more… If you want to hear from a guy who eats and sleeps marketing automation, then this interview is not to be missed. 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 About Chris Brisson Cofounder of Call Loop, Chris Brisson started his first internet venture in 2002 at the age of 19 out of his college apartment in Tallahassee, FL and 3 years later he sold this company to a private investor. Chris is known for his cutting-edge marketing strategies and over the years has launched several brand new products for himself and clients which went on to become six figure and many cases seven figure businesses.  

Do you ever look at tools or technology for your business and think, I would love to have it, but I can't afford it? Do you feel like you have what it takes to make your business grow, yet, growth is still eluding you, or you are working way to hard to get it? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you are not alone. In this episode of the Bright Ideas podcast, I'm joined by Yvonne Halling, owner of the Les Molyneux bed and breakfast in Champagne, France, and recent winner of Infusionsoft's best in class for customer service award. After seeing that a B&B had been recognized by Infusionsoft for excellence, I just had to find out what Yvonne was doing that was so unique. In her and I's discussion, you are going to hear us talk about: how she doubled her revenue in just 12 months after beginning to use Infusionsoft how she is using marketing automation to sell more to her guests once they've booked a room how she is getting a top trip advisor rating from virtually every guest without having to take the time to ask the ONLY two key activities that she now focuses on in her business how her success lead her to create an entirely new business that provides coaching to other bed and breakfast owners which two books radically altered her thinking a few years ago how her new belief system is actually what lead to all the success she is experiencing the content that she's put on her site that has increased engagement with her clients exponentially and so much more It really doesn't matter if you run a B&B or not, this interview is packed with golden nuggets that will benefit any entrepreneur who is struggling to do it all themselves. Regardless of where you are at in the process of growing your own company, this interview is one you can't afford to miss. Trust me. 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 About Yvonne Halling I’m Yvonne Halling and I  run a Bed and Breakfast business.  I’m currently in the heart of the Champagne region of France, and I welcome people from all over the world, helping them to discover the hidden gems of Champagne. I opened my B&B business in 2001, before the internet!  How life has changed since then.  If you’ve been in this business for any length of time, you’re sure to be able to relate to that.  And if you’re new to the business, then you won’t know what it was like back in the day when communication was much more limited. I believe we are lucky to have witnessed the explosion of communication channels, which can only be a force for good.  If we embrace the changes, then we will see what great opportunities lie ahead for us all. The Bed and Breakfast business is in a unique position now to embrace online technology and add value to our local communities in a way that simply wasn’t possible 10 or even 5 years ago.  My philosophy is that as we welcome more and more people from diverse walks of life, we have the chance to learn about and understand more human beings, bringing value to our own communities and theirs, through the sharing of our knowledge. My business philosophy is simple:  I bring in the guests, which means that I buy more bread from the local baker, buy more meat from the local butcher, bring diners to the local restaurant, bring buyers of champagne to the local producers, bring clients to local attractions, bring employment to my cleaners, gardener and book-keeper, and give business to the local laundry service.  I buy local produce wherever possible, which supports local business,

Are you familiar with Zappos.com? They have become one of the fastest growing companies in the world as a result of doing one thing better than their competition. Do you know what that one thing is? It's a core decision that affects virtually every decision the company makes. In today's episode of the Bright Ideas podcast, I'm joined by Stan Phelps, an agency owner, author and speaker who has studied Zappos (as well as another 1000 companies) to determine what amounts to 12 critical things that a company can do to differentiate themselves from the competition by "giving something extra" to their clients. In today's interview, you are going to hear Stan and I discuss: Why you need to understand the concept of Marketing Lagniappe How Lagniappe is used by Zappos and many other market leaders How to avoid commoditization in your industry How to crowd source a large research project How he's leveraging speaking opportunities to build his business What Zappos is doing to create a highly engaged and fulfilled workforce Some ideas for how I could use Lagniappe here at Bright Ideas 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 About Stan Phelps Stan is the Founder / CMO of 9 INCH marketing, an organization that inspires leaders to think differently about marketing. Challenging them to value customer experience as a competitive differentiator and the importance of employee engagement in building a strong corporate culture. Stan helps brands explore new opportunities, showing them how to be more successful in tomorrow’s changing world. Stan works with clients to create experiences that are memorable, meaningful and on-brand. 9 INCH is driven by client objectives and inspired by bold vision. The result: programs that win big.

Experienced entrepreneurs understand that that when it comes to the right way to sell a business, there are a few details that you absolutely must get right. If you don't, the amount of money you receive for your company will most assuredly be less than it could otherwise be. If you are building a company today that you may one day want to sell, are you taking the steps today to plant seeds for the sale of tomorrow? Do you know that the single most important thing you need to be doing for the 18 months leading up to the sale? In this episode of the Bright Ideas podcast, I'm once again joined by Ian Ippolito, founder of vWorker.com, which was recently acquired for an undisclosed sum by Freelancer.com, and during our conversation you are going to hear Ian and I talk about: how he managed to sell his company for almost twice the initial offer the one activity that he intently focused on for the year leading up to the sale the steps of the acquisition process, from letter of intent to closed sale the key components that every letter of intent should contain how to understand what the buyer's motivation is and how to use that to your advantage how to know when to move into due diligence with a potential buyer the most important things that a buyer is going to look for during due diligence the value of a business broker, tax advisor, and legal counsel why most buyers will want to structure the deal as an asset sale how to create an auction for your company to maximize the sales price why and how terms can play such a large role in negotiations ways to structure the sales contract to keep you out of court if things go wrong and so much more… Regardless of where you are at in the process of growing your own company, this interview is one you can't afford to miss. Trust me. 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 The Interview Now Download and Listen Later About Ian Ippolito In 2001 Ian created a site where employers could find remote workers in a marketplace and be protected with money-back guarantees, while the workers would be guaranteed payment for a job well done. The resulting site was (at that time) called Rent a Coder and was programming focused. The site grew to facilitate thousands of succesful projects a month in all types of work, and was re-christened as vWorker in 2010. vWorker was called "One of the 100 most brilliant companies" by Entrpreneur magazine, and has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Fast-Company and many other journals and magazines as a company exemplifying the shift of power to the new world-wide digital economy. It is a 3 time (2007, 2008, 2009) consecutive winner of the INC 5000 "fastest growing private company in the U.S." award. In 2008, Ian was a finalist for Tampa Bay CEO of the Year in the category of "Emerging CEO: Under age 40". In 2009 he was again a finalist for Tampa Bay CEO of the Year... this time in the "Small company under 45 employees" category. He enjoys travelling and enjoying excellent food with good company.

Have you ever thought about how to start an online business, but find that you are held back for one reason or another? Do you have a family to support and wonder how to make the transition with the least amount of risk? Would you like to hear how a guy who worked as a chemical engineer for 14 years successfully made the switch? In this episode of the Bright Ideas podcast, I'm joined by Bryan Allain, long time blogger, husband, father of two and founder of Killer Tribes. In this interview, you are going to hear Bryan and I discuss: the financial plan that he and his wife came up with to minimize the risk of the transition how they built planks on their transition bridge before finally taking the leap how's he's building a loyal following of bloggers who buy coaching and consulting from him how he has sold over 4,000 copies of his first book on Amazon how he launched a live conference in Nashville (not his home town) in his first year and actually turned a profit doing it the breakdown of the cost to host his conference, as well as the revenue he generated how he recruited speakers to come present, either for free, or for a fraction of their usual fee how content marketing should play a role in your business how to find ideas to write about how to easily create thoughtful and informative posts that people will love to read 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 The Interview Now Download and Listen Later About Bryan Allain Bryan Allain is a 36-year old former Chemical Engineer who now makes a living helping other people find their fans, extend their reach and build their killer tribes. He launched Killer Tribes in 2010 because he loves helping people find their voice, share about their passions, connect with others and grow their brand. There are so many folks out there with a valuable message to share who aren’t sure how to get that message to more people.

Are you looking for proven communications strategies to use to build relationships with the media? Would you like to discover what's working for a leading PR expert, and how she's used it to build a very successful agency? In this episode of the Bright Ideas podcast, I'm joined by PR and Agency veteran, Nancy Marshall, founder of Nancy Marshall PR, a seven figure agency with 17 employees. During today's discussion, you are going to hear Nancy and I discuss: Her 60 step Marshall plan and why it is so effective How she uses the Marshall plan to repel clients that won't' be a good long term fit Her 3 legged strategy for business development Her proven lead nurturing process What a most wanted list is and why you must have one 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 About Nancy Marshall Nancy Marshall is principal of the agency and founder of NMC. Since 1991, NMC has been creating and implementing strategic public relations programs, primarily for tourism and recreation companies, and has developed expertise in promoting economic development. NMC has been recognized by the Society of American Travel Writers for its tourism public relations campaigns, and the Maine Public Relations Council has awarded NMC with its "Best in Show" for three consecutive years in its Golden Arrow Awards. Links Mentioned Nancy Marshall PR

Would you like to drastically shorten the time it takes you to get thousands of subscribers on your list? Do you think that if you had 4,000 engaged subscribers that you would see a meaningful impact on the bottom line? Would you like to hear from a guy who's done it successfully? In this episode of the Bright Ideas podcast, I'm joined by Mark O'Brien, CEO of NewFangled.com and in our discussion, you are going to hear Mark and I talk about: why many marketing agency websites aren't consistently generating qualified leads the four goals your site should help your firm to achieve how to create content that will engage your audience how to add thousands of subscribers to your list in under 30 days the CRM and marketing automation tools that you need to be an expert in the key performance indicators that an agency site should be measured by how Mark went from intern to President to CEO of his agency the structure of the deal he put together to buy his firm 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   About Mark O'Brien Mark is fortunate to be able to spend his days working with the fantastic Newfangled team to discover new ways of planning and delivering the greatest conversion-focused websites they can imagine for their clients. The way Mark sees it, he has three jobs. The first is to make sure Newfangled is the kind of company that attracts and retains top talent. The second is to develop and maintain the right kind of client relationships so that they're able to do this work they love for as long as possible. The third job is to work with the Newfangled team and their clients to make sure that they're offering the right strategic and technological solutions. If they've got the right people and the right clients, and are creating sites that have a significant impact on our client's business, things are good.