Stories of people doing business and life well. We explore what it means and what it takes to do business and life well.
I’m your host, Peter Wilson. If you’re like me, you’re intrigued by stories of common people who have achieved uncommon success in business and life. Join me as I interview fascinating people about how they got started, their successes and failures, their habits and routines, and what inspires them.
Peter and marketing expert, Charlie White, discuss how narrowing down the focus of their marketing efforts to a specific niche can make marketing more effective. They talk about how this approach can lead to more productive conversations with potential clients, higher close rates, and the ability to charge more for tailored services.
In the business world, referrals are a potent catalyst for growth. They are not merely a byproduct of excellent service but a strategic resource that can be actively harnessed. The key to unlocking this potential lies in effectively asking for and stimulating these referrals, as demonstrated by real-world examples.
Consider the story of a company whose origin was rooted in providing a service for their grandmother. This experience led to the creation of their brand mantra: “Only the best for grandma.” This phrase became a part of their brand personality and informed their approach to customer service. It also became a powerful referral tool. When customers heard this story, they were more likely to refer the company to others, knowing that they would receive the same level of care as “grandma.”
Another example is a dental clinic that implemented a referral program. For every referral made, both the referrer and the referred received a $15 Starbucks card. This strategy incentivized referrals, but it also did something more. It made customers feel appreciated and empowered them to provide value to someone else. The Starbucks card was not just a bonus, but a token of appreciation for their help in growing the business.
The podcast also discusses the concept of the “rule of 250,” which suggests that each person has about 250 people in their general sphere of influence. This means that each customer who refers your business potentially exposes you to a network of 250 other people. This network effect can dramatically increase the reach and impact of your referral strategy.
Moreover, the podcast emphasizes the importance of specificity when asking for referrals. Instead of a blanket request for any referral, guide your customers towards the type of referrals that would benefit your business the most. For instance, if you specialize in serving home service contractors, make sure your customers know this. The more specific you are, the more likely your customers will think of potential referrals.
These real-world examples and concepts demonstrate that orchestrating and stimulating referrals is not just about asking for them. It’s about creating a narrative, showing appreciation, and being specific in your requests. It’s about turning your customers into advocates for your business. By actively seeking referrals in this way, you’re not just growing your business, but also creating a community of customers who feel valued and engaged. So, if you’re looking to unlock exponential growth, start stimulating and orchestrating referrals today, and watch as your business flourishes.
In our latest podcast episode, we had an insightful conversation with Chris Goldman, a seasoned marketing strategist and business coach. The focus of our discussion was on the pivotal topic of increasing customer lifetime value, a key aspect of the 'after' section of the one-page marketing plan.
Chris emphasized the importance of transforming a customer base into a fan base. He highlighted the significance of providing a world-class experience that not only retains customers but also turns them into advocates for your business. This approach, he explained, is key to unlocking the continuous lifetime value that customers can offer.
We explored the concept of upselling and the positive impact it can have on a business. Upselling, when done authentically and with the customer's needs in mind, can deliver additional value to the customer and increase their engagement with your business. This strategy can be particularly effective when a business offers a range of products or services at different price points.
We also discussed the importance of improving product and service quality. Businesses should always strive to enhance their offerings, not only to justify price increases but also to ensure they are meeting their customers' evolving needs and expectations.
The conversation then shifted to the concept of 'reactivation' - reaching out to past customers and re-engaging them with your business. This strategy can be a gold mine for businesses, as past customers are already familiar with your brand and are more likely to make a purchase than new prospects.
Finally, we discussed the importance of frequency and how increasing the frequency of purchases can significantly boost customer lifetime value. This strategy can be applied to a wide range of businesses, from car washes to dental practices.
In conclusion, increasing customer lifetime value is a multifaceted process that involves upselling, improving product and service quality, reactivating past customers, and increasing purchase frequency. By implementing these strategies, businesses can build a loyal fan base that provides continuous lifetime value. Stay tuned for our next episode where we will continue to explore more strategies to grow your business.
In the world of business, the customer experience is paramount. This concept is beautifully explored in Allan Dibb's "The 1-Page Marketing Plan," specifically in chapter seven, which is dedicated to delivering a world-class customer experience. This chapter offers a wealth of insights that can help businesses transform their customer interactions and create loyal, satisfied customers.
Here are some key points:
Delivering a world-class customer experience involves more than just selling a product or service. It requires providing additional value, reducing friction with technology, and educating customers about the effort that goes into your offerings. By doing so, businesses can create loyal customers and even turn them into cheerleaders for their brand.
Have you ever wondered why some businesses seem to have a magic touch when it comes to converting leads into sales? Well, buckle up, because we're about to dive into a podcast conversation between Peter and Chris Goldman, a business coach and marketing strategist, that's as enlightening as it is entertaining. They discuss the art of lead conversion, drawing insights from Allan Dib's book, "The 1-Page Marketing Plan."
The conversation starts with a bang, defining leads as potential customers who have shown interest in your product or service. But here's the kicker: they compare the process of converting leads into sales to buying a gumball from a gumball machine. Yes, you read that right. A gumball machine. Apparently, people buy from companies and individuals they know, like, and trust, just like they would trust a gumball machine to dispense a gumball after they insert a coin. Who knew business could be so... chewy?
Next, they discuss the importance of positioning your brand, product, or service correctly. They share a hilarious story about a world-renowned violinist, Joshua Bell, who usually earns a thousand dollars a minute for his performances. But when he played at a subway station for an hour, he only made $32. Why? Because the commuters didn't recognize him or understand the value of his music. It's like playing Mozart at a Metallica concert – it just doesn't fit.
The conversation then shifts to the importance of value in your products or services. They argue that businesses should not just sell a service or a product, but also sell themselves as a guide, a champion, and a helper for their customers' success. It's like being a superhero, but instead of saving the world, you're helping customers find the perfect product or service.
The podcast ends with a discussion on transitioning from a pest to a welcome guest. They emphasize the need to bring value to customers' lives and position oneself as a helper rather than someone desperate to make a sale. They compare it to proposing marriage on a first date – it might work once in a blue moon, but it's not a strategy you want to stake your business on.
Chris shares his experience with door-to-door sales. He explains that the key to success in this field is not to be a pest, but a welcome guest. He shares a quirky technique that involves knocking on the door four times (apparently, any more or less is a turn-off), backing away from the door, and looking down the street. As tempting as it is to peek through the window, he advises against it. Let the homeowner size you up first. When they ask, "Can I help you?" that's your cue to introduce yourself. It's like playing a game of "Knock, Knock, Who's There?" but with the potential to make a sale at the end. This unconventional approach turns the tables, making the homeowner the initiator of the conversation, and positioning the salesperson as a responsive helper rather than an intrusive pest. So, if you ever find yourself selling door-to-door, remember: four knocks, step back, and let them make the first move. It's a dance, not a sprint!
In conclusion, converting leads into sales is not just about making a quick sale. It's about building trust, positioning your brand correctly, and providing value to your customers. It's about transitioning from being a pest to becoming a welcome guest in your customers' lives. And if all else fails, remember the gumball machine.
Katlyn Ferguson and Peter discuss how to get your business ready for 2023. Katlyn is the founder and owner of Citizen Virtual Business Services, a virtual bookkeeping service. Learn how she approaches business planning with her clients and how to apply it to your own business.
Resources
Contact Katlyn:
Citizen Virtual Business Services
Learn more about bizmktg.com
bizmktg.com
Overall, how is your business doing in 2022 vs. 2021?
For 2022, what is one accomplishment in your business you are proud of?
What are your expectations for your overall business results in 2023 vs 2022?
These are a few of the questions we asked in our 2023 Business Outlook Survey.
Listen in as Peter and his guest, Chris Goldman, review this year’s survey results and share their own perspectives.
What's new in SEO? Peter and SEO Expert, Paul Lee, discuss two things businesses need to know if they rely on digital marketing to drive their business results.
First up, Google updates and what they mean for businesses. Second, Google is retiring Google Analytics next year. Learn what you need to do now to prepare for that change.
Whether you’ve been working from home for a few months or several years, you can always use a few tips. Three team members at bizmktg.com, Emily, Chris, and Marcel share their pro tips for working from home with Peter.
Are you intimidated by technology? Peter’s guest Courtney Tyson argues that businesses shouldn’t be intimated by technology. Courtney is the Strategic Partnership Manager for CallTrackingMetrics. Her company provides a way for businesses to see the effectiveness of their advertising through phone call source tracking.
Links:
CallTrackingMetrics
Peter invited Don Koontz from episode #1 of the podcast back to share his "five years ago" story. Don shares how his business has grown and changed in the past five years and how he stays motivated. Listen to episode # of the Biz & Life Done Well podcast.
Don is a dentist and the owner of North Creek Dental Care located in south Everett, WA.
Last week Peter wrote about the experience of moving out of our Edmonds office and shifting to 100% virtual (5 Years Ago Blog Post). In this podcast episode Peter dives deeper into that move and how much things have changed at bizmktg.com over the past five years.
Peter issues a challenge to all business owners and managers. Are you ready to take it one?
Learn why we are raving fans of Allan Dib’s book, “The 1-Page Marketing Plan.” The book is Amazon’s #1 best seller in the Global Marketing category and a gamechanger. Rather than spending hours or days creating a marketing plan that nobody uses, the book teaches businesses how to create a 9 square marketing plan that fits onto a single page.
The book divides up marketing into 3 phases that follow the lifecycle of a customer:
The “before” phase. Before they know who you are.
The “during” phase. When they are considering buying from you.
The “after” phase. Delivering on your promise after they say yes.
We love the book so much that marketing team at bizmktg.com decided to get certified as coaches of “The 1-Page Marketing Plan.”
Want to get a free copy of the book? We’re giving away 5 copies of “The 1-Page Marketing Plan” between now and Sept 1, 2022.
Go to https://bizmktg.com/getmybook and enter to win.
We often hear business owners say, "I'm too busy for SEO!" Peter and SEO Expert Paul Lee discuss how businesses can finally overcome this response to SEO and actually get something done.
Peter shares who won the July Lunch Giveaway for a $150 Gift card to the winner's choice, Chipotle, Chik-fil-A, or Jersey Mike's. He also shares the feedback received from listeners on future topics for the podcast.
Have questions or feedback for Biz & Life Done Well? Email us podcast@bizmktg.com
Enter our July 2022 Lunch Giveaway by going to https://bizmktg.com/better and completing the form.
One person will win a $150 gift card to their choice of Chipotle, Jersey Mike's or Chick-fil-A.
Email campaigns have one of the highest ROIs in business. Emails are easy to send out to a mailing list and can help your business thrive. In this episode, Peter and Emily discuss the 10 Ways to Boost Your Email Campaign.
Once you know how your results are looking, you can tweak your emails to make your campaigns more effective and successful.
Is your business missing out on effective marketing by not doing email campaigns? We are here to help! Visit our resources below and book a consultation with us to get started.
https://bizmktg.com/do-email-campaigns-really-work/
https://bizmktg.com/3-digital-marketing-essentials-for-weathering-a-downturn/
https://bizmktg.com/how-to-organically-and-legally-grow-your-email-list/
Enter our July 2022 Lunch Giveaway by going to https://bizmktg.com/better and completing the form.
One person will win a $150 gift card to their choice of Chipotle, Jersey Mike's or Chick-fil-A.
Are you a dabbler when it comes to marketing?
What’s a dabbler? According to Merriam Webster, “some common synonyms of dabbler are amateur, dilettante, and tyro. While all these words mean "a person who follows a pursuit without attaining proficiency or professional status," dabbler suggests desultory [random] habits of work and lack of persistence.”
This concept came to mind again as I was conducting a marketing review with a potential client. I said, “…don’t take this personally, but it sounds like you’re a dabble when it comes to your marketing.” There was a long pause, then I heard laughing and agreement. “Yes, we’re dabblers,” the President of the company admitted.
Is your business relying on “random acts of marketing.” Sending an email newsletter one month, then posting to social media for a few months, then hiring a new SEO person, then firing them in a few months. This is no way to run a professional marketing strategy for a business.
Maybe you're not quite that bad. Here at bizmktg.com we stuck to a few proven strategies for our own marketing but didn’t do them consistently. For example, we didn’t consistently produce blog articles or podcasts nor did we send out weekly email updates to our list. I’ll tell you how we fixed that later in the article.
Here are 6 signs that you're dabbling when it comes to your marketing:
Most marketing strategies take time to optimize and produce results. SEO can take 6 months or more to show real results. We tell our clients it takes 60-90 days to optimize an online ad campaign on Google. 1. Inconsistent activity - Not consistently doing email campaigns. We run into businesses all the time that are sitting on a goldmine of current and previous clients they could be sending relevant, informative emails too on a monthly or weekly basis. You MUST email at least monthly if you want people to take you seriously. 2. Not Tracking results. I find when folks don't track results then they don't know what is working and what isn't and they are less committed to marketing. So their mentality is well we're not even sure it's working. We use phone call source tracking, website form tracking and other methods to track results.Figure out your cost per lead and your close rate per lead so you know the Cost Per Acquisition of each new customer. Ideally you would know the “lifetime value” of each new customer so you can compare the two and see whether or not your marketing is profitable. 3. No point person in the organization making marketing decisions or being responsible for marketing. sometimes we see companies will assign the marketing tasks to an individual in the organization who is already extremely busy and is now being asked to do yet another thing and of course it's not a priority so it doesn't get done. Going alongside that just not having clearly defined roles within the organization. 4. Not investing enough consistently to get results - If you are running online ads, you’ll need to be ready to spend at least the amount of money to generate one new lead per day. If new leads are costing $50 each, then you should spend at least that much per day. If you run the ads everyday, that equates to about $1,500/month.
One sure sign of a company that's dabbling in marketing is one that is not investing an amount equal to the cost of getting a new lead. What I mean by that is if you are expecting your marketing to produce say 20 new clients a month that means that depending on your close rate of leads that you receive you may need to get between 40 and a hundred or more leads each month in order to land 20 new clients.
The cost per lead could range between say $5 and more than $200 each. So if you are not investing enough in the marketing that is producing leads then you shouldn't expect to get the results that you are hoping for.
We know businesses are dabbling at their marketing when we see:
I can admit that I am a dabbler in a few areas of my life; one area that recently came to the forefront was crab fishing. I live in the Pacific Northwest and we can catch Dungeness crab by setting traps with bait and you lower it down in the water to say you know lower it down to the bottom and depending on the time of the year it took her you might be fishing in you know 50 to 100 ft of water.
In the past we've taken our crab pots out, thrown in a few pieces of chicken for bait and hoped for the best. The crab harvest was hit or miss, generally more miss than hit.
Recently one of my really good friends, Drew, bought a crab pot puller and that motivated me to want to get hardcore about crab fishing. So rather than just put out a few pots and hope for the best and maybe get two or three crab every time we go out to start it to get super serious about the bait, about the buoys, about the pulling the pots, about how often we pull them about where we set them.
This crab season our focus effort has already paid off. we're going to pull a sit so I went out recently on the Fourth of July weekend and we were able to get 8 Keepers so that was enough to feed a lot of crab to our friends and family. It was really a lot of fun and it is always more fun when you catch something.
I can see how that would relate to marketing as well because in many respects marketing is just like catching customers you're trying to attract with some bait you want them to initiate contact with you crawl into the cage so to speak.
Now the cages are traps we use are the kind of way you can crawl back out now obviously we're not applying that directly to our customers but in terms of how we Market our products and services to our potential customers this one is definitely relate so we stopped we got serious about it and now we're doing well.
Another way that we were dabbling in the business was we were actually dabbling with her marketing as well we were putting out a newsletter periodically and we're not
So we decided to get consistent with our marketing and put out one new piece of content a week and a weekly update newsletter that highlights that piece of content that we create each week. The podcast is one of those items that we put out. We also write blog articles and have other types of content available.
So it was over two years ago we decided to begin doing this consistently and now fast forward 2 years later we've generated well over a hundred pieces of contents sent out a hundred email updates to our followers we have picked up several clients through that process and we've also been able to just help a lot of businesses which is what our primary goal is.
I've seen it work very well for other clients of ours about 10 years ago we had a client who was not showing up on the web at all for the names of the people who work there and it's a professional services company so you would expect the website to be in the search results for the names of the people who were providing the services but they weren't so
we worked with a client to come up with a strategy of content creation and they have consistently create content over the last 10 years when we got started with them they were seeing about 300 visits to the website of month now mind you this was about ten years ago fast forward to today they consistently see 5 to 7,000 visit to the website each month primarily driven by people finding the content that created that they created about topics of interest to their potential client so clearly that strategy works if you do it over time this planet doesn't spend a dime on paid advertising online it's 100% organic traffic which arguably I could be called better than paying for traffic so that's another area to think about.
How to stop dabbling and get serious about your marketing:
This month (July 2022) we're giving away one $150 gift card to the winner's choice of Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, or my personal favorite, Jersey Mike's. They can buy lunch for their team or just enjoy one huge lunch by themselves. Listen to the podcast to learn how to enter and why we're doing this giveaway.
Peter’s guest is Ethan Vastbinder, founder and President of College Movers. The company connects college students to local labor opportunities, primarily focused on residential moving and event staffing. He started the company in 2018 at the young age of 22. Since starting, the company has grown to nine locations with plans for many more. Ethan explains how he started the business and how he has managed to grow it so rapidly.
Need college student labor for a move? Visit CollegeMovers.us
Are you a college student looking for a great part-time job? Visit CollegeMovers.us
Peter and Paul Lee's latest "SEO Hot Take" is how a slow website can impact rankings on Google search results. They discuss the factors that can slow down website performance and how to fix them.
For a Free Website Speed Test, send an email to speed@bizmktg.com with your website domain. We'll run a speed test and send you the results with a personalized video explaining everything.
Peter's guest is Nathan Caddell, a husband, father, friend, pastor, and an ultramarathon runner. Nathan shares how he got started, his motivation, and how he keeps going. For those wondering, an ultramarathon is defined as any running race longer than a marathon (26.2 miles).
Show Notes:
Book suggested by Nathan
North: Finding My Way While Running the Appalachian Trail
by Scott Jurek
Nathan was selected to be part of “Becoming Ultra,” a coaching experience for first-time ultramarathoner’s.
Becoming Ultra – podcast
Follow Nathan Caddell on Instagram @caddelliano
Peter Wilson shares the origin story of bizmktg.com and a few of the lessons he learned after 10 years in the business of marketing. Peter is interviewed by Emily Caddell, bizmktg.com’s Director of Marketing. Peter founded the marketing company in early 2012 to help small businesses grow faster and win online.
Related Links
Our First Clients
North Creek Dental Care
Beresford Booth PLLC
The BNI networking group that helped us grow our business.
The BNI Big Dogs of Lynnwood, WA
Our First Big Dog Clients
American Crawlspace & Pest Services
Bret’s Inc. Auto Repair
Our first official space was shared with Lillyan and Mesfin at The Branding Iron in Edmonds.
The Branding Iron – Design. Print. Market.
An article about The Branding Iron’s Grand Opening – May 8, 2014
My Edmonds News
My Edmonds News – Teresa Wippel, Publisher
KDMC Marketing – David Kaufer
Want to know why your website isn't generating new business? Catch up with Pete and Chris as they discuss BIG mistakes businesses make with their websites and how to fix them.
Worried about your website getting hacked? Learn the steps you can take to protect your website from hackers in this episode featuring Tim Hendershot, bizmktg.com's web developer. Peter and Tim discuss the most common website attacks and how businesses can defend against them.
Peter and Emily Caddell, bizmktg.com's Director of Marketing, discuss the latest trends in online marketing and what's working now. They cover Facebook, Instagram, Google, TikTok, LinkedIn, and what types of ad campaigns are working on each.
Business Networking International, BNI for short, is a 30+ year-old organization that helps business owners and professionals connect and refer to each other. In this episode Peter discusses the benefits of BNI with Chris Goldman. Chris is bizmktg.com's messaging expert and a member of BNI. Peter has been a member of BNI for the past 8 years. They discuss how BNI has helped bizmktg.com grow year after year and how it can help you too.
Peter is joined by vocal coach, Sally Morgan, from Sing Like You Speak Academy. Peter and Sally discuss how to speak more confidently and with authority. Listen in to hear what lessons Sally has for Peter and hear his actual improvement.
Sally Morgan singer, songwriter, vocal trainer, author, director, speaker development trainer, keynote speaker, is on a mission. Her life purpose is to empower voices and lives by making the vocal arts accessible to everyone. Singing so simple it feels like talking to your best friend. Sally is a master at helping singers bridge that gap between someone who sings and a true vocal artist. She has helped her clients heal vocal damage, expand range, land a Broadway show, record their own music, and tour internationally without vocal fatigue or strain.
If you want to learn more about how Sally can help you empower your voice, visit: Sing Like You Speak Academy.
Confused about Google Analytics and how it can help your business? Peter and his guest, Stuart Jenner, discuss the fundamentals of Google Analytics that every business owner should know. Peter and Stuart answer these important questions:
Stuart is principal consultant of Marketek Consulting Group. He helps businesses leverage their Google Analytics data to assist with with website and marketing planning. Stuart also assists businesses with cost-effective traffic generation through Google Ads, search engine optimization (SEO) and other tactics.
Peter is joined by bizmktg.com's Director of Marketing and Social Media expert, Emily Caddell. They discuss five social media pitfalls that businesses need to avoid. Their advice comes from years of experience seeing businesses do it wrong and pay the price.
Want to receive a one-hour social media consultation with our expert for only $99?
Learn more and fill out a contact form here: https://bizmktg.com/social
Should you do the marketing for your own company? The simple answer is, it depends. Peter is joined by David Kaufer, Chief Dynamic Officer at his marketing agency, KDMC. Peter and David discuss the pros and cons of DIY marketing. They also discuss the questions you should be asking prospective marketing agencies before you hire them.
Get In Touch
Peter Wilson, President of bizmktg.com
bizmktg.com
David Kaufer, Chief Dynamic Officer at KDMC
KDMC Website
Leadership and Personal Coach Anne Garing is my guest. We discuss how coaching helps leaders get a better understanding of their goals and achieve them. Peter has worked personally with Anne and can attest to the impact she had on helping him.
Anne helps young adults, career professionals, and business leaders with career development and life changes. She has a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Vanderbilt University and spent several years teaching psychology at the college level. For the majority of her career, she worked in a large not-for-profit healthcare system in Learning and Organizational Development.
In addition to supporting leaders, Anne has put theory into practice, holding leadership roles herself; the last of which was as Director of Customer Experience in the corporate headquarters of a large healthcare organization.
Anne is currently offering a complimentary introductory coaching session.
Contact Anne directly at her website: AnneGaringCoaching.com
Artificial intelligence (a.k.a. AI), big data, 5G and blockchain are emerging technologies that will have profound impacts on how businesses operate in the future. Peter's guests David Cieslak and Eric Beyer discuss what these are and how they can be used in business to win.
Peter and SEO Expert Paul Lee answer two frequently asked questions, "SEO or Google Ads, which is best for growing a business?" and, "How long does it take for SEO to work?" They also discuss how businesses should rank for keywords that are not on their website.
Here are two articles Paul wrote about these questions:
SEO or Google Ads, Which Is Best For Growing Your Business?
How Long Does SEO Take?
Peter and Emily discuss how the team at bizmktg.com applied the lessons from "The Ideal Team Player," by Patrick Lencioni, to build a better team. They examine what Lencioni calls the "three virtues" of an ideal team player; humble, hungry, and smart. Peter and Emily also discuss how each of these virtues is exemplified in bizmktg.com's weekly team meeting.
In 2021, bizmktg.com helped more than 10,000 businesses. Peter Wilson, President of bizmktg.com and Kyle Rhodes, the company's designer, discuss how and why the company did it.
The tagline for bizmktg.com is "We Help Businesses Win Online." One of the company's core values is simply, "We Help Businesses Win." This formed the genesis of a viral success as the company helped more than 24,000 in 2021.
Early in 2021, Peter met with his business coach, Anne Garing of Anne Garing Coaching to plan his goals for the next three years. One of his goals was to help more businesses. Anne pushed him to come up with a specific number. He arrived at 1,000, then decided that number was to low...so he added a "0" and got to 10,000 businesses.
An integral part of helping businesses is education. bizmktg.com is always looking for hot topics to write and podcast about. In the span of one week, two clients of bizmktg.com asked if they should pay $289 to a company named "US Domain Authority" for a "directory listing." The solicitations from the company were letters that looked like invoices, with five different ways to pay and even included a addressed return envelope to mail a check to the company.
Peter was incensed about the situation. In order to help as many businesses as possible, he created a blog post and a Youtube video, both titled, "Should I pay “US Domain Authority” for an annual website domain listing?"
The blog post went viral. Over 10,000 people viewed it in one month alone and so far in 2021, over 24,000 people have viewed it.
What's next? The company is raising the bar, with a new goal to help 100,000 businesses by 2023.
“What’s my business worth” is a question most business owners ask themselves. My guest is Eli Neal, Founding Principal of 4 Corners Financial Forensics. He is a business valuation expert that helps businesses understand what their business is worth. We discuss why it’s important to get a business valuation, the various pitfalls of not having it done, and different approaches to valuing a business.
Read Eli’s blog post: “What is the process for a business valuation?“
Get in touch with Eli for a free initial consultation:
(425) 998-7690
https://www.4cornersff.com
Burnout among doctors and healthcare providers of all types is an epidemic. Peter's guest is Dr. Joe Sherman, a a board-certified pediatrician with over 30 years of clinical practice experience who experienced burnout himself. He overcame burnout and rediscovered joy in his medical career. Now he is on a mission of helping other healthcare professionals rediscover the joy of practicing medicine through coaching, consulting, and workshops for individuals and organizations.
Contact Dr. Joe Sherman
Website: https://joeshermanmd.com/
Email: joe@joeshermanmd.com
Sarah Rivera is the founder of "Women Take The Lead," an equine assisted learning experience where the horse is the life coach. She is a Certified Facilitator through Equine Connection. This unique program marries together her two passions: her love of horses and her desire to help people.
Learn more about Sarah and her company https://www.womentakelead.com
Jon Hall is the founder of Switchbird, a mobile messaging platform that makes it easy for businesses to communicate with their customers via SMS text messaging and other forms of messaging. Peter and Jon discuss the value of text messaging for businesses and how to get started.
Contact Peter at bizmktg.com if you're interested in a demo of the Switchbird platform.
(425) 835-3412 or schedule a meeting with Peter - Calendar Link
Check out Switchbird's website if you want to research the service directly. Be sure to mention this podcast if you reach out to the company.
Chris Chavez is a videographer and storyteller that produces videos for businesses and organizations. Peter and Chris discuss how videos can help small businesses better connect with potential customers through storytelling.
Get in touch with Chris Chavez and learn how video can help your organization:
Chavez Creative Co. website
Instagram - Chavez Creative Co.
LinkedIn - Chavez Creative Co.
Peter and SEO Expert Paul Lee discuss how to do SEO the right way for health & wellness providers such as dentists, medical doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists, naturopathic doctors, and more.
See our blog post on this topic here: SEO For Health & Wellness Providers
Have you ever considered using a virtual bookkeeper for your business? Katlyn Ferguson, owner of Citizen Virtual Business Services, is our guest. Her company provides virtual bookkeeping services to small and medium sized businesses. We discuss the benefits of using a virtual bookkeeping service and the types of businesses that may benefit the most.
You can learn more about Citizen Virtual Business Services and schedule a free 30 minute consultation to discuss the needs and wants of your business at her website: Citizen Virtual Business Services
Peter and SEO Expert Paul Lee answer the frequently asked question, "Can I do my own SEO for my business?" In short, the answer is "yes," but you probably shouldn't. They explore three pitfalls of doing SEO on your own and offer SEO tips along the way.
SEO is one of those things many business owners are tempted to do themselves. You might say, “Do I even need professional SEO help? I can do this myself!” You read about it online, do a little research, maybe even subscribe to a few tools or tracking services, and then BOOM, you’re in business, right? Well, maybe.
Probably not, though. Sure, you’ll do it for a little while, maybe even a few months, but more than likely you’ll start to let things slide, then only do it sporadically, then stop, and then… the guilt.
SEO shouldn’t be a source of guilt. It should be a source of sales.
So why don’t most business owners succeed at doing their own SEO? Here are a few reasons.
CONSISTENCY
SEO is about consistency. You know you need more content on your site, so you say you’ll write 4 blogs a month. After a couple, you decide maybe 2 a month is fine, and then you miss a month, and then you try to catch up, but… yeah. Let’s just remove the dates on the articles and hope people don’t know how old they are.
When you turn to pros for SEO help, it’s their job to be consistent. You’ll get content written, you’ll get posts updated, you’ll get reports. Consistently.
LONGEVITY
SEO is about doing things consistently over a long period of time. You wrote a blog article, that’s great! Now write 23 more, 2 a month for an entire year. Are you feeling your enthusiasm waning slightly? Now do it again for 2 or 3 more years, or if we’re being honest, do it for the foreseeable future. Professional SEO help is starting to look better and better, isn’t it?
Writing blogs, maintaining site structure, checking for errors, reaching out to sites for links – all those things must be done over a long period of time to see the full benefits of search engine optimization. You’re busy running your business, putting out fires, making customers deliriously happy… do you really feel like checking the backlink profile for your site along with dozens of other tasks? Every month? For years? Call a pro.
ATTENTION TO DETAIL
SEO is about doing all the right things consistently right over a long period of time. A good SEO looks at everything, and they look at it again and again, and they make sure it’s right. The titles of your pages, the descriptions you use, the links you create. All of them must be right, and they must be right consistently, and right over the years. That’s a lot to study, notice, and act on.
Moreover, the “rules” of the SEO game change often. What worked 3 years ago might get you in trouble with Google now. But if you’re not in the SEO business, you’re probably don’t know, and that could cost you. A pro is paid to know what’s new, what’s working, what’s not, and what needs to happen in every aspect that affects rankings.
The stakes are high here. SEO drives sales. It has to be the right SEO, though. Is yours?
Contact bizmktg.com for professional SEO help that works.
Peter’s guest is Mike Hlavaty-Laposa of TeamLogic IT. We discuss how evolving cybersecurity threats can impact businesses. Mike shares some interesting insights into just how sophisticated these attacks have gotten lately and the extent of the impact they can have on a business.
Mike is the owner of TeamLogic IT North Seattle/Eastside. His company provides managed IT services, cybersecurity & compliance, data backup & recovery, connectivity and cloud services to businesses in the Pacific Northwest. His office is also part of the greater Team Logic IT network which provides IT services to businesses throughout the United States.
You can reach Mike at (425) 697-9708 or you can request a free consultation here.
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If you're in business, like it or not, you're in sales too. The idea of "selling" makes some people break out in hives...but it doesn't have to. Rachel Morgan and I discuss her six tips on how to sell without sounding "salesy."
Having worked in retail for +12 years, Rachel cultivated long-term relationships with her customers, developed raving fans, increased repeat business, and built a word-of-mouth army. For 5 of those years, Rachel worked as a Retail Store Manager in fine jewelry, personally coaching a team to hit 9 record sales months. During her time as a Store Manager, Rachel coached her team through multiple half million dollar sales goal months, trained new store managers to take over high volume stores, and mentored several assistant managers.
At the beginning of 2021, Rachel left the world of fine jewelry to start her own coaching business to mentor businesses 1:1 how to do the same.
Using her step-by-step method, Rachel is going to teach YOU how to sell without sounding salesy to your customers.
You can follow her on Instagram (@remorgan), Facebook (www.facebook.com/rachelmorganconsulting), or send her an email (remorgan@outlook.com)
Rachel is also in the process of launching a live course in April about how to improve customer experience within your business. For more information, please make sure to send her an email or follow along on social media.
Emily Caddell, Director of Marketing at bizmktg.com is Peter's guest. They discuss how bizmktg.com has built a high performance virtual team through engaging and fun weekly team meetings. They discuss each agenda item and how it grows trust and collaboration among each team member. The team is truly virtual with Emily located in Boston and others located in the Seattle area.
*Our Weekly Agenda Outline:*
Our SEO expert, Paul Lee, is my guest in this deep dive into the best way to write blog posts that show up in Google search results and build trust with potential customers. Get our free .pdf download “A Blog Writing Guide For SEO”
If you search for your business name and your city in Google, you’ll likely see a version of your businesses Google My Business listing in the search results. Peter and bizmktg.com's SEO expert Paul Lee discuss everything business owners need to know about Google My Business.
What if I told you that there’s one thing you could optimize that might result in a huge boost to your local search rankings? This one thing accounts for around 33% of all the ranking factors that Google takes into account to figure out where you rank. You might have guessed, that one thing is Google My Business (GMB for short). What is Google My Business, you ask? And why should you care? Read on.
What is Google My Business?
Google launched GMB a few years ago, and most people barely noticed. They intended GMB to be sort of your “home page” for search results. It’s a compilation of lots of information about your company, all in one convenient place. Your hours of operation, your official name, a description of the company, a list of reviews, and a lot more. If you search for your business name and your city in Google Maps, you’ll likely see a version of your GMB listing in the search results. Take a look for yours now.
GMB Profile for bizmktg.com
Why does it matter?
Remember, though, most businesses didn’t really pay attention when GMB was launched. Google created profiles for every business, but it was up to the business owner to “claim” the profile and complete it fully. Some did, but a lot didn’t.
But over the last 3-4 years, Google has been ramping up the importance of the GMB information. Today having an active, optimized, fully utilized Google My Business profile is the single largest local search ranking factor.
The Local Search Ranking Factor report released in 2020 shows that GMB signals account for a full 33% of the factors Google uses to decide ranks. More than page titles, more than links from other sites, and even more than reviews. Wow.
What do you do about it?
First, find your GMB profile. Then make sure your company has claimed and verified ownership of the information with Google. And finally, optimize the heck out of it.
Everything should be filled in, nothing left for Google to guess about. Upload photos of your facilities and staff. Answer your reviews – good and especially bad! A GMB-savvy SEO specialist will be able to help you take full advantage of everything that Google is offering.
SEO can be understood as sending Google the right signals so it can determine where your business ranks in response to a customer query. If 33% of all those signals come from one single source, shouldn’t you make sure that source is accurate and complete? Get your GMB listing sorted out. Talk to us, and we can help.
Book Consultation
Peter is joined by bizmktg.com's web designer, Kyle Rhodes. They discuss three symptoms of an outdated website. Peter and Kyle also discuss the design and build process bizmktg.com employs for creating new websites.
Marci Taylor is business marketing consultant. We discuss the new audio-based social network, "Clubhouse." Marci shares how to join and best use the platform. We also discuss how Clubhouse fits in to the bigger picture of social and professional networking.
Anthony Langdon, owner of Asset Roofing, discusses how he lead his company through the difficulties of 2020. He safely grew his company 4X while others were closing. Anthony describes a mindset of doing "the next indicated step" which he learned as a U.S. Marine.
My guest is Dr. Lindsey Harding. She is a licensed Naturopathic Medical Doctor providing general medicine services with an emphasis in mental health, endocrinology, and gastroenterology. She practices at Positive Touch Medicine, a Naturopathic Medicine clinic located in Seattle, WA. We discuss how the challenges of 2020 changed how she provides care to her patients.
My guest is Kevin Schmidt. We worked together at a "dot com" business in the late 90's. Kevin has always struck me as a man of contentment. Calm and focused, even when the world around was not. We recently reconnected via Instagram so I asked him for an interview. We cover a multitude of topics including contentment, meditation, gardening, the world of work, and poetry.
Kevin's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevineschmidt/ @kevineschmidt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/certifiedhappinessengineer
In this episode Jessica Brookes and I explore the question, "cross-generational communications, is there a sweet spot?" With four or five generations of workers in today's workplace, this question is highly relevant. We recorded this episode several months into the coronavirus crisis. With many of us using video conferencing for most of our work meetings we discuss techniques for getting the most out of these meetings and the joys of meeting in person.
Jessica is currently in Community Operations with Amazon. She has a deep experience in multinational Fortune 100 brands developing content strategy to increase impact through education, communications and operations. Jessica is passionate about connecting people, ideas and opportunities for empowerment, engagement and results.
Chris Goldman joins Peter Wilson as they discuss the benefits of using customer surveys to improve your company's marketing and services. They discuss how to get started, the kinds of questions to ask your customers, how to setup a survey, how to recruit customers to provide their opinion, and what to do with the data once you've collected it. Chris describes his experience with Alaska Airlines customer surveys and why he usually responds to them.
Peter is joined by Chris Goldman. They discuss how businesses can get more positive online reviews and why all businesses need to take control of their online reputation.
Peter shares how Google Pay Per Click (PPC) Ads work. He discusses Paid Search (Keyword) Ads, Banner Ads, Remarketing Ads (Retargeting) and Google new Smart Ads. You'll learn which are best for your type of business and how to get started.
Webinar #4 - Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies that work with SEO Expert, Paul Lee. SEO is how to improve how well your business appears in Google search results when a potential customer of yours (that is local to you) searches for the products or services you sell. Learn WHY local SEO is important for every business and three ways you can get started improving yours today.
Webinar #3 features Emily Caddell, Social Media Director for bizmktg.com. Emily is a social media marketing expert who helps businesses and organizations get the most from their social media efforts. Peter Wilson, President of bizmktg.com, joins her on this webinar.
The webinar starts with the basics or social media such as how to create a business profiles on Facebook and Instagram. It also covers the difference between organic social media posts and sponsored posts (a.k.a. ads) and the different types of ads available. The webinar wraps up with a robust question and answer session.
This webinar features Chris Goldman, Certified StoryBrand Guide with bizmktg.com and Kyle Rhodes, Designer with bizmktg.com.
Chris presents an overview of StoryBrand, the powerful messaging framework developed by author Donald Miller. Donald Miller's bestseller, "Building A StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen" has helped thousands of companies clarify their messaging and grow. NOTE: Due to StoryBrand's copyright restrictions, we are not able to share a recording of that portion of our webinar. See information about our StoryBrand related services.
Our design expert, Kyle Rhodes, shares 3 reasons why having good design is important to growing your brand online.
Episode Resources https://bizmktg.com/resources/
Register for upcoming webinars https://bizmktg.com/webinars/
My guest on this episode is Camille Gallinger. She is a Nutritionist and Vitality Coach. Camille helps people live their lives with vitality. She defines vitality as energy plus joy plus momentum. She describes how her personal journey transformed her life and how she helps others restore their personal vitality through "courageous self-care."
Camille's website: ThinkVitality.com
Paul Lee is my guest on this episode. He is an expert in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tactics and strategies. Paul and I discuss why SEO is important for anyone with a website that they want to get more people to visit. SEO is how to improve the ranking of a website on Google search results. The closer to the top of the Google search results page, the more likely a website will get clicked on and visited.
Loren O'Laughlin is my guest. Loren embarked on a journey to read 50 books in 2019. He accomplished the goal, actually reading 55 books that year. Hear what he learned, the books he recommends and his tips and tricks for getting through so many books in a year.
My guest is Chris Goldman, a Certified StoryBrand Guide. Chris and I discuss five things every business owner should know about StoryBrand. StoryBrand is a marketing framework businesses and organizations can use to clarify their messaging. StoryBrand helps businesses find messages that potential customers are drawn to.
Andrew Ball is an Acupuncturists. He holds a Master's of Science in Traditional Oriental Medicine and a Doctorate of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. Initially bound for Western Medical school, Andrew consistently turned to Traditional Chinese Medicine as the only natural place offering balance and harmony for both his personal and professional life. Join me as we learn more about Andrew's path to success in life.
Ashley Wigren is a top real estate professional and a yoga instructor too. Learn how she found her work ethic at age thirteen and finds balance in work and life today.
Full Episode Notes for John Hughes
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John Hughes firm Gnu Talent Website
Unselling https://tinyurl.com/unselling
Haunting the CEO http://is.gd/hauntingtheceo
Sensitive film http://sensitivethemovie.com/hsp/
Episode 006 - Full Episode Notes Page
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Cisco Electric's website https://ciscoelectric.com/
Ana Allison started her career as a project manager in construction. Now she is one of the top franchisees of Aussie Pet Mobile, a mobile pet grooming franchise. https://bizmktg.com/podcast
Don Koontz DDS is a dentist and good friend. His practice is North Creek Dental Care in Everett, WA. Dr. Don shares his thoughts on fitness, work, life and faith.
This episode is a brief trailer that explains why you should listen, who I am, and why I am doing this podcast.
Please send me your comments, suggestions, feedback and introductions to others people you think I should interview.
Podcast produced by Peter Wilson
bizandlife@bizmktg.com
Show website: bizandlifepodcast.com
This podcast is sponsored by bizmktg.com - we help businesses win online so they can grow faster