Local Business Leaders

Justin is the founder and CEO of Guild Content. I love that name by the way, we’ll talk about that. Probably the first or second question. A Kansas City digital marketing agency focused on creating content that connects and builds brands that can be trusted. His love of writing and connecting to the emotions of audiences led him to leave his front-office role in the Kansas City Chiefs in 2017 to start his agency. You can learn more of their story at GuildContent.com. Justin, welcome to the show.

Jon Schram is an Kansas City managed services IT support expert and the founder & CEO of The Purple Guys, a tech company that has grown since 2001 to become the Midwest’s premier provider of IT support services. The Purple Guys is a fast-growing, 7-digit business that has helped hundreds of companies grow by solving their IT problems and providing them with stress-free, bullet-proof tech support. Jon Schram and his wife, Jill, have three children and have founded two businesses together.

Scott Niedow was born and raised just outside of Chicago. He is a proud Purdue Boilermaker! Scott’s been at James Hardie Siding just shy of 15 years. He’s had many different sales and management roles at Hardie over the past 15 years but the bulk of his time and passion lies with helping James Hardie siding contractors run successful businesses. Scott Neidow says his mission is to be able to help contractors transform their businesses to meet and exceed their financial and personal goals. 1. First we’ll learn a little about Scott’s journey to Hardie and how he got to where he is today. 2. Second, I want to learn more about what I call the James Hardie magic. When I talk about Hardie to other people, I tell them that they are the Chik Fila of the material supply industry. They go so far above and beyond what most material supply. 3. What are some of the challenges that you see with exterior remodeling contractors and how have they overcome them to grow their businesses and their wealth, and improve their quality of life.

Chad Peterson is an entrepreneur, author, and award-winning business broker. His Kansas City based mergers and acquisitions firm, Peterson Acquisitions, was recently acknowledged as one of the best business brokers in the nation. Chad Peterson successfully handles business transactions across the United States, and occasionally around the globe. His M&A firm works on deals from $1 million to $25 million, and in some cases exceeding $25 million. He handles the transactions from start to finish with tenacity and results. He lives great life, traveling and making deals with movers-and-shakers around the country, but Chad started out with a more humble beginning. Chad business journey started when he was a child.  He hustled as a kid, walking dogs, shoveling snow, mowing grass, trimming trees, and cleaning out gutters.   He developed a thick skin by and 'can do' attitude by cold calling and knocking on the doors. He learned how to prospect, how to garner the trust of clients, and a how-to work hard to earn every dollar. Chad also wrote the book From Blue to White, A Working Man’s Guide to Self-Employment, where teaches people how to transition from employee to self-employed.  This book was well-received and garnered attention from the likes of Scott Alexander, author for Rhinoceros Success, one of Chad’s favorite authors. Scott Alexander not only endorsed the book, but he also wrote the foreword.

Brad Sugars started the ActionCOACH brand when he was in his early twenties! Today the company is internationally recognized as one of the best business coaching franchises and one of the leading and most awarded franchises in the world today. So how did a twenty-something Australian create this global powerhouse? He did it through hard work, determination and a well-organized, systemized approach that leads businesses to profits. Brad Sugars has always been entrepreneurial. Even from a very young age, Brad was an entrepreneur. He displayed a natural curiosity for how to work smarter and get measurable results. When still at university, Brad Sugars ran several small businesses. Perhaps due in part to his talents which were developed at a relatively young age, Brad’s ability to make companies from every conceivable industry flourish lead him to be known as “The Turnaround Kid”. Brad Sugars was soon asked to speak to business owners and executives – sharing his tips and advice on web design and digital marketing, sales, systemization and team building. Audiences were wowed. Brad’s “pull no-punches” approach was a refreshing change from other speakers at the time. Today, ActionCOACH operates in over 70 countries and has more than 1,000 coaches around the world, coaching 15,000 business every week. The franchise has received numerous awards including Fastest Growing Franchise, Franchisee Satisfaction, Best Overall Company and has been named the number one business coaching franchise in the world every year since 2004. In this episode of the local business leader podcast, learn how to get business coaching clients from the master himself.  

Ex-Paypal & AirBnB SEO Manager Tommy Griffith Discusses Online Courses adn why they are better than grad school. Tommy Griffith has been doing search engine optimization for more than 10 years. He previously managed SEO at PayPal and Airbnb, and now runs ClickMinded, a digital marketing training platform for marketers and entrepreneurs. Tommy started ClickMinded as a side project while working full-time at Airbnb. He grew it until it started generating more revenue than his annual salary. Two years ago, he quit Airbnb to go full-time on it and ran into a number of problems in trying to grow his online SEO course business from there.

John Jonas has been making a 6-7 figure income online since 2004. He has helped thousands of entrepreneurs succeed by teaching them how to replace themselves through outsourcing. He created OnlineJobs.ph, the largest marketplace to find Filipino workers. He also teaches his system for how to find great Filipino workers for free. While making a full-time living he rarely works full time. His team of 27 full-time Filipino virtual assistants do the work in his businesses, while he manages the process. They range from programmers, designers, and webmasters, to writers, researchers, a project manager, and just general VA’s. John has made millions of dollars online directly from work that his Filipino workers have done for him and now teaches others exactly how to do the same thing. If you’ve tried outsourcing before, but haven’t heard what John has to teach about it, give it another try. John’s teachings are SURE to change the way you look at running your business, outsourcing, and the success you have in doing it.

Joel Goldberg has one of the most recognizable faces and voices in Kansas City. While Joel has had a first-row seat to one of the most inspirational stories in recent sports history, Phil Singleton found his personal story to be fascinating. It’s no wonder that he has become on of the most sought-after Kansas City motivational speakers in the metro area and has spoken at: Joel shares an amazing story of how he started out in his early 20’s, fresh out of college, and created an opportunity by cold-calling scores of TV stations around the country and fought his way into the business with sheer grit and determination. You will love this episode on Kansas City's top local business podcast! Click to learn more about Joel, his broadcast career, and all the cool new things he is doing in Kansas City at Joel Goldberg Media!

Ryan Stewart, is a marketing entrepreneur with over a decade of experience building and selling online businesses. He worked as a consultant for Deloitte and SapientNitro helping large brands like Target and Best Buy improve online acquisition. He built and scaled an eCommerce site called Laces Out with a 1.2 million organic business per month and sold the business in 2017. He built and scaled an online SEO agency called WEBRIS to 1.1 million in annual recurring revenue in 16 months, and sold the business in 2018. Ryan is now a partner and board member at From the Future, a technical digital agency that provides link building services and digital marketing services, with 40 employees and offices in Miami and Philadelphia. Podcast booking services for this podcast provided by Podcast Bookers.

Elaine Pofeldt is a freelance writer, editor, and ghost writer who has recently worked with publications including The Economist, Fortune, Money, Inc., CNBC, Crain's New York Business, Forbes, and many others. Entrepreneurship, small business, and careers are her specialties. She is also the author of a new book, which we're going to talk about today, The Million-Dollar One-Person Business. She helps corporate, non-profit, and private clients write and edit proposals, newsletters, blogs, RFPs, reports, white papers, academic articles, and books. Elaine also helps her online editorial clients create inviting high-traffic websites, drawing on her experience on excuse me, Fsb.com to five million page views a month and the number two site in Google after the USSBA. She founded and ran a national businessman competition for fortune, small business and now advises clients on creating and improving contest on their own. She experienced appearing as a guest on TV outlets such as MSNBC and CNN. Please check out all of our podcasts and be sure to learn more about how to grow your business with podcast booking services.

Tom is an SEO strategist and the host of The Sure Oak Podcast. He is the founder of Sure Oak an SEO agency in New York City that grows companies with search engine optimization to get businesses more traffic and drive their revenue growth. Tom has been published in many well-known publications, such as The Huffington Post, Search Engine Watch and SEMrush. Sure Oak is a full-service SEO firm － they are experts at getting you more targeted organic traffic to help grow your company. They not only help big-hearted organizations reach more people; this SEO agency also helps searchers find what they’re looking for. They care about helping purpose-driven organizations achieve remarkable, long-term growth to make the world a better place to live in. Sure Oak does this with SEO. Through the power of search and technology, their team envisions a world where all human beings have higher consciousness, an abundance of time freedom, deep fulfillment, and overall well-being.

James Rose is a reformed Australian digital agency owner and the co-founder of Content Snare. Content Snare is an online software service designed to cut down the time and headache wasted on chasing up clients for website content. Content Snare is one of the best content marketing tools helps digital agencies and web designers get content from their clients. One of the biggest bottlenecks in the web design process is waiting on clients to send their content through. After countless follow-ups and an email trail longer than your to-do list, it’s still likely deadlines will be missed. Content Snare helps you get the content back on time and in the right format, without email. Instead of wading through different files, a massive email trail and Dropbox, Content Snare provides a central place where you and your client can access everything. Instead of having to constantly chase clients, Content Snare does the reminding for you.  

Chris Parker is the founder & CEO of WhatIsMyIPaddress.com, the number one website in the world for finding your IP address. According to the Alexa ranking, Chris’s website is one of the top 3000 websites in the United States with over 6 million visitors a month. Chris started the website on January 4th, 2000 and for the first five years, his revenue didn’t even cover his internet bill. In 2005, Chris made $30 from display ads and he knew he couldn’t give up! In 2014, Chris was laid off from his corporate job and was faced with the scary opportunity to make his website a full time business. Since then he’s aggressively grown his site to generate just under seven figures a year in revenue with no employees, no office, and no inventory! WhatIsMyIPaddress.com has granted Chris and his wife time and financial freedom that they use to travel the world and raise their mini schnauzer, Bailey. Learn from Chris Parker how to build a million dollar website business.

Dave Wieser the founder of DW Creative Marketing,  a Kansas City-based marketing agency that helps local businesses increase leads and sales through effective marketing strategies and systems. Dave is one of Kansas City's top advertising experts.  He has a decade of previous working experience as an account executive for Kansas City area TV stations. DW Creative Marketing, LLC is one of the best Kansas City advertising agencies, and has a strong reputation of providing marketing and advertising consulting services in retail and home services. These services include: Creating and implementing marketing strategy Strategic "New Market Entry" communications Brand strategy TV & Radio Advertising Direct mail campaigns Crises management Social media marketing Reputation management Web design Pay-per-click advertising

Ruben is the founder of Bidsketch, a bootstrapped SaaS app that’s used by thousands of freelancers, agencies and sales teams to create professional looking client proposals. He launched this top-rated proposal software on the side nine years ago, working nights and weekends, and grew it into a profitable product shortly after it launched. He’s also now starting a new SaaS called Docsketch, which is an electronic signature product that gets sales documents signed 40% faster.

Brad Burrow  has a full range of experience and a wide range of production disciples from broadcast, film and TV commercials. Real Media has been rated the #1 best among all Kansas City video production companies by Blogger Local. Learn more about Real Media Kansas City at: https://realmediakc.com  

Stephen Woessner is the founder and CEO of the Digital Marketing agency Predictive ROI and host of Onward Nation, a top rated daily podcast for business owners. He’s also the author of several books, one on search engine optimization, another one on viral social media and viral social networking. And his most recent one, which we’ll talk a little bit about today is Profitable Podcasting, a podcast marketing book that I just recently read and loved and we’re going to talk some more about in this episode that as well.

Interested in influencer marketing? This is a great tip to get just about any influencer to accept your outreach pitch. Be sure to check out the show notes page where I explain how and why an initial outreach pitch to Brian Dean failed. And how I took that experience and figured out a way to create an outreach approach that worked (with an almost immediate response) from Larry Kim, founder of WordStream and Facebook Messenger marketing company Mobile Monkey. Also, listen to Larry explain why he said yes to me when on a typical day he gets 10-20 pitches. Also listen to how he got LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman to reply to his cold outreach email.

Jenny Kincaid. Jenny is the owner of Socialworx Public Relations, a Midwest media relations agency with strong local and national media context, and community connections. Jenny is mostly known for her expertise in Kansas City public relations, and for her unique approach on community engagement, or what she calls social relations. Her agency takes relationship one step further by seeking people out who their clients should meet, such as Kansas City influencers, to help them further the business goals. And by building relationships that benefit clients personally, professionally, and philanthropically.

Mike Kawula is the founder of Entrepreneurs GSD, and co-founder of Dinner Table MBA. Michael is an entrepreneur whose last three businesses each hit seven figures in under three years, with this past being ranked the number 144th fastest growing company by Ink magazine in 2012. He's an author. He's been featured on CNN, interviewed by Anthony Robbins, and featured in over 100 publications in over the last few years. Michael has been an entrepreneur since September 10, 2001, has a strong passion for digital marketing, start-ups, his family, and the Florida beaches. Local Business Leaders Podcast Episode resources Mike Kawula's Website His Book: Self Employed Now WTF Mike Kawula on Twitter Mike Kawula on LinkedIn

There is a ton of information about your business on the Internet. By controlling the accuracy of your company information across the Internet, you get better visibility and more leads and sales. Digital Knowledge Management is the way that you can take control of your company’s digital footprint, and calibrate it across the Internet in the most accurate, cost-effective way possible. Yext’s DKM solution is so powerful that it’s become a mandatory solution for all of our new SEO and digital marketing clients. This episode with Yext’s Rev Ciancio explains why. David "Rev" Ciancio serves as Director, Industry Insights for Yext, where he works to ensure customer success as they deploy the Yext Knowledge Engine on behalf of their businesses. Over his 20+ year career, he has managed business development, digital marketing, and social media strategies for a wide range of entertainment and hospitality companies. When not preaching the gospel of Digital Knowledge Management, you can find this expert burger taster discussing the virtues of what makes a truly great hamburger on his Instagram account, @revciancio and hospitality marketing tips on his blog, burgerconquest.com.

Want to learn more about content marketing? Katie Bean is President and Editor of Thinking Bigger Business Media, a resource for Kansas City small business owners. Her background is in the newspaper journalism industry, which she supplemented with an MBA from UMKC in 2017. She loves to learn about businesses, and help connect business owners with people and strategies that they the need to grow. Learn more about Katie Bean: Thinking Bigger Business Media Thinking Bigger on LinkedIn Thinking Bigger on Facebook Thinking Bigger on Twitter

About Mandy McEwen Mandy is the Founder and CEO of Mod Girl Marketing, an inbound marketing consultancy based in California. Recognized as a Top 8 SEO Expert by Search Engine Journal and a content marketing influencer by BuzzSumo, she has helped thousands of marketing entrepreneurs and business owners exceed their goals by sharing the lessons she’s learned in over 10 years in the industry. In addition to successfully scaling her own 100% remote digital agency, Mandy has developed premium digital programs to help fellow marketing entrepreneurs find dozens of qualified leads a week, land 6-figure dream clients, scale their business through modern outsourcing, and more. Learn more about Mandy McEwen Mod Girl Marketing Mod Agency Insiders on Facebook Mandy McEwen on LinkedIn Mandy McEwen on Twitter   About Phil Singleton Phil Singleton is a web designer, an SEO expert and an award-winning author. Since 2005, Phil has owned and operated a digital agency based in Kansas City. In 2016, Phil and John Jantsch, of Duct Tape Marketing, co-wrote, SEO for Growth: The Ultimate Guide for Marketers, Web Designers & Entrepreneurs. SEO for Growth is an Amazon bestseller and has been listed as a top marketing book by Mashable, Oracle and The Huffington Post. It’s also been featured on MSNBC, Entrepreneur and Search Engine Journal, and was named by Forbes as the #1 best SEO book on its list of “Essential SEO Books for Every Startup to Read”. Resource Links: Kansas City Web Design Kansas City SEO SEO for Growth Podcast Bookers WordPress Schema Plugin Phil Singleton on Twitter Phil Singleton on LinkedIn Phil Singleton on Facebook #1 Rated Kansas City Web Designers  

Kade Wilcox is the owner and CEO of Primitive Social, a digital marketing agency in Lubbock, Texas, focused on helping companies grow through software development, website design and development, inbound marketing, and sales enablement. In 2011, Kade and his wife Lacey started Primitive Social, providing social media support to small local businesses. In 2013, Kade and Lacey connected with Jerred Hurst (now co-owner of Primitive Social) and decided to focus on growing the company. Over the past six years, Kade has helped transform Primitive Social from a 2 person team into a multi-million dollar company with nearly 50 employees. Kade is happily married to Lacey and has a beautiful 7 year old daughter named Selah and an incredible 5 year old son named Kase.

Larry Kim is the founder of WordStream, which is a suite of online marketing and advertising tools that helps businesses manage search engine marketing campaigns. More recently, Larry is the CEO of MobileMonkey. Mobile Monkey is the worlds best Facebook messenger marketing platform for marketers and companies of all sizes. It's free and easy, it's an online service that enables you to create powerful chat-bots without coding. Larry Kim is one of the best and brightest minds in digital marketing. He's the Google whisperer, the Albert Einstein of AdWords and the Pied Piper of unicorns.

Danny Govberg is a pioneering force of the contemporary watch industry. His vision and insatiable passion for watches and technology enabled the evolution of Govberg from a Philadelphia-based retail shop to one of the world's premier authorized dealers of both new and pre-owned timepieces.  Danny recognized years ago that selling new watches was only one way to support the life of a watch collector and set in motion a tech forward, pre-owned strategy that inspired the evolution of the global ecommerce website WatchBox. Episode Resources WatchBox Danny Govberg on LinkedIn Watchbox on Facebook WatchBox on Instagram WatchBox on YouTube

Greg is CEO of Blue Chair, he has more than 30 years of entrepreneur experience in startups, acquisitions, business development, and takeovers. Starting with Gragg Advertising in 1992, one of the best Kansas City advertising agencies, Greg has started four additional technology companies, purchased one and helped develop over 20 proprietary products focused on good practices in performance marketing. Greg has been nominated Entrepreneur of the Year twice and has received numerous accolades and awards over the years. Greg's companies have been noted in Kansas City's fastest growing companies for the last 20 years. Most recently, Lever1 was listed as the fastest growing company in Missouri by Inc. Magazine and was the 40th fastest growing company in the US. In addition, Integra Shield was listed as one of the top 5,000 fastest-growing companies in Inc. Magazine. Resources: Gragg Advertising Blue Chair LLC Integri Shield Lever1 Gregg Gragg on LinkedIn Gragg Advertising on Facebook Gragg Advertising on Twitter

Brandee Johnson is an entrepreneur, a marketer and a speaker. Since 2015, Brandee has owned and operated Limelight Marketing, a Kansas City inbound marketing agency based in Pittsburgh, Kansas. Limelight helps companies to have brand stories to attract and convert customers. Prior to owning the agency, Brandee spent 15 years working for leading brands in national and global corporations including Lego. She has implemented and integrated a variety of marketing and IT systems including inbound marketing, marketing automation, CRM, and eCommerce platforms. Brandee, welcome to the show. Resources & Special Offer LimeLight Marketing Brandee Johnson on LinkedIn LimeLight Marketing on Facebook LimeLight Marketing on Twitter Free 30 minute consultation (mention the show!)

On this business podcast, David Straight is a doctor of physical therapy, he’s an author, speaker, and a marketing expert. He’s also the co-owner of e-rehab.com. And a marketing director of a seven-location private practice. David and his business partner own and operate a digital marketing agency that serves the physical therapy private practice market. He and his company provide websites, email newsletters, search engine optimization, reputation management, video marketing, and social media marketing for over 1,600 locations across North America. He’s the author of “Booked Solid, the Fast and Easy and Affordable Way to Use the Internet to Drive More Patients in the Door.” He’s presented on multiple, national, state, and local professional conferences as well. His passion is to help people understand that physical therapy is the best first choice for neuromuscular conditions. Resource links: E-rehab.com Booked Solid David Straight on LinkedIn E-rehab on Facebook

Phil Singleton interview Melissa Roberts. Melissa Roberts helps entrepreneurs find the resources they need to grow their businesses–whether that’s space, education, mentoring or connections to capital. She serves as the VP of Strategy and Economic Development at the Enterprise Center in Johnson County, a Kansas City-based non-profit organization. There, she oversees the ECJC’s marketing and communications strategy, educational programs and public policy efforts. Melissa has been honored as one of the “30 Under 30” to watch by Ink Magazine and a “Next-Gen Leader” by the Kansas City Business Journal. To learn more about educational programs for entrepreneurs at the ECJC, visit www.ecjc.com. Check out a blog post by Phil Singleton on ECJC's web site: 10 SEO Tips for Startup Companies

As an inbound marketer, we practice what we preach. But when you dominate online, you have to be careful what you wish for… Sometimes we get so many calls and emails it’s hard to keep up. Sound like humble bragging? It’s not. When a large amount of your leads don’t have the budget or willingness to invest in a successful marketing campaign, it takes a lot of time and effort to process leads that are not your ideal clients. It takes time and money to qualify and process high ticket leads.  And it takes resources (as in salary or commission) to professionally process your lead flow. And how you handle leads – especially ones you need to reject – affects your online reputation. Any business that wants to grow, MUST consider outbound sales. Why? Because good clients – your ideal clients – are often already growing without your help.  They don’t know if they could be making a lot more money with your help, unless you can make them aware of opportunities they are missing. I just had to know for myself what is working, because we failed miserably at sales campaign last year. So, I turned to one of the smartest sales experts I know, from one of the world’s most trusted sales training systems. Dan Stalp, President of Sandler Training Kansas City breaks down what I did wrong, how to do it right, and what tactics are working for sales pros today: LinkedIn (great insight here) Strategic referral tactics Networking

Marc Guberti is an entrepreneur, digital marketing expert, and author. Marc publishes multiple blog posts every day on his digital marketing blog and tweets every 15 minutes to over 400,000 Twitter followers. Marc has the fearlessness of his teen years and dedication of an entrepreneur mixed into one mindset which guide him through the process of creating products and writing content. Marc wants to show teens that they can start their businesses earlier. No one has to wait for working papers anymore. There is no age limit for success, and you don't have to be 18 years or older to be successful. Listen to the local business leaders podcast.

In this episode of the Local Business Leaders podcast we get to chat with Erica Brune, president of Lever1 in Kansas City. Erica explains what a PEO (professional employer organization) is, how Lever1 got started, and some of the key reasons how this venture became so successful so quickly. You can learn more about Lever1 and Erica Brune here: http://www.lever1.com Lever1 on Facebook Lever1 on Twitter Erica Brune on LinkedIn

Julie Cortes has worked in the advertising and marketing industry for over 20 years now, starting on the agency side, moving to corporate, back to agency, and then finding her passion in freelancing. She's worked with with hundreds of clients and accounts along the way in a variety of industries. This includes most of the local Kansas City advertising agencies and design shops, as well as some of the larger corporations and small businesses you might be familiar with. Julie loves being an active member of the professional community, having spent most of her career volunteering, serving on boards, attending professional functions, speaking publicly, and getting interviewed by the media.And while she's won more than her fair share of awards (over 50), she's probably best known for starting The Freelance Exchange of KC — a professional trade organization of 'solopreneurs' in the advertising and marketing industry.Now Julie is taking her love of the the Freelance Life to the classroom to teach other young artists the tools they need to survive on their own. Julie has created her own course, Freelancing 101, and started teaching as an Adjunct Professor at the renowned Kansas City Art Institute. Learn More About Julie Cortes The Freelance Exchange of Kansas City JulieCortes.com Kansas City Art Institute Julie Cortes on LinkedIn Julie Cortes on Twitter

Shawn Kinkade is a full time certified Professional Business Coach, Strategic Advisor and the President of Aspire, a business strategy, consulting and coaching company founded in Leawood Kansas in 2007. He works with entrepreneurs and business owners who are looking for traction and momentum in their business and are ready to take things to the next level. Shawn’s experience has been a mix of Management Consulting (Accenture and as an independent) and as a Corporate Executive (at Sprint PCS), both roles required extensive work on developing and fixing business processes, making people productive, instilling leadership and coaching success with a dedicated focus on solving business problems. For the past 10 years, Shawn has been working as a coach and strategic advisor, helping his clients reach (and exceed) their business goals. Using an entrepreneurial focus along with his corporate background and experiences, clients get a unique perspective and powerful insights into their challenges and solutions. You can reach Shawn: Via email at SKinkade@aspirekc.com or By phone at: (913) 660-9400 On LinkedIn: Shawn Kinkade Or check out the website at www.AspireKC.com Learn more about Kansas City business coaching services

About 5 years ago, I almost invested $300k in a content crowdsourcing / blog writing startup. Well, $100k was my own money and the other $200K was from other angel investors I brought to the table. Why did I consider this kind of strategic investment? Because I wanted to be part of solving the #1 problem agencies had back then - and that that we still have today: Getting Consistent Affordable High Quality Blog Writing for Agencies I have tried just about every one of the best 3rd party content writing providers out there and have invested 10's of thousands of dollars into blog writing services over the years. All of them turned out to be a disappointment, usually because of a lack of quality control and consistency. I am sure there are some good solutions out there, but to date, no one has come close to The Content Company. In this episode of Local Business Leaders, I interview Cara McCarron, founder of The Content Company. I just had to interview Cara on the Local Business Leaders podcast to find out how she'd been able to crack the code to producing a high quality outsourced writing solution. If you an an agency owner or marketing consultant, you're going to love this one, including the FREE sample blog post she offers (to agencies / marketers only). Be sure to check out The Content Company

Sherry Bonelli is a nationally recognized local SEO expert and digital marketing professional. She entered the digital marketing world in 1998 when she launched her first ecommerce business selling pregnancy and baby products. Her ecommerce site was selected as one of the top 10 websites by a leading pregnancy magazine, and she appeared on the TODAY Show, CNN, ABC News and other media outlets. Her digital marketing agency, early bird digital marketing, is located in Cedar Rapids, IA, but she serves clients all over the U.S. Sherry is passionate about helping her clients grow their businesses. As a guest columnist for some of the leading SEO and digital marketing websites, like: Moz Search Engine Land SEMrush GeoMarketing/Yext BrightLocal SCORE She’s earned recognition by having some of the most shared local SEO blog posts in the world and one of her blog posts was recently recognized as Search Engine Land’s second most popular column in 2017. To fill her head with even more knowledge, she obtained her Master’s Degree in Internet Marketing in the Fall of 2016. Sherry is a frequent speaker at industry events, webinars and podcasts where she shares her vast knowledge on all things digital marketing. In her “spare” time she volunteers as a SCORE Mentor for the SCORE East Central Iowa Chapter. As a SCORE mentor, she enjoys helping fledgling businesses identify their digital marketing strategies. Episode Resources & Links You can learn more about Sherry by visiting www.earlybirddigitalmarketing.com. Sherry's bonus offer: get a free website analysis here. Connect with Sherry Bonelli on LinkedIn Learn more about search engine friendly web design.

Learn how to use your own personal podcast or your own company podcast to connect with your ideal clients and the CEO and business owner level. This is one of the most effective outbound-inbound digital marketing lead generation tactics you will ever find. One-click Lindsey Anderson is a crazy smart digital marketer. She, in fact, is one of the inspirations for the Local Business Leaders podcast. One of the coolest things about Lindsey is how she and her team help businesses at all levels, but I think most importantly smaller local businesses.  She has a killer local lead generation tip that we think every small business owner should use, and she give a great example in the interview for a chiropractor. Epidode link: Podcasting for Lead Generation This is a must listen, and be sure to check Lindsey's websites, and courses here: One-Click Lindsey's Blog The Traffic & Leads Podcast PDX Small Business Network Podcast The Click Technique (Free online course!) Lindsey Anderson on Facebook  Lindsey Anderson on LinkedIn Lindsey Anderson on Twitter Welcome everybody to another episode of the Local Business Leaders Podcast. I am your host Phil Singleton. Today I've got a very special guest. Really, I always say that because I do believe everybody's special but One-Click Lindsey Anderson. She is the first female guest we are having so hooray, hooray. Awesome. I'm sure we'll have many more but let me read this intro off to you guys and then I'll let Lindsey fill in the blanks. One-Click Lindsey is a web strategy expert working with small business owners to help them utilize the web to produce more website traffic and leads. Lindsey is the founder and CEO of trafficandleads.com. It specializes in driving traffic, getting leads, and the art of nurturing leads to become lifelong clients. One-Click Lindsey is an expert in landing pages, email sequences, search engine ranking, newsletters, analytics, social media, pay per click ads, websites, blogging, and the list goes on and on. She knows how to utilize the myriad of online marketing options to generate more traffic and leads, which produces more paying clients. That's awesome. I love it. Welcome to the show, Lindsey.

In this episode of Local Business Leaders, we discuss how John Jantsch got started in marketing and how he started Duct Tape Marketing. John gives tips and advice how freelancers and moonlighting professionals with day jobs can start their own agencies. We also discuss the best ways for professional service providers to generate leads and get new business today.   Lead Generation & Marketing Tips for Professional Services Firms  

Ken Tucker is the founder of Changescape Web, a Small Business Marketing and Website Design Agency specializing in comprehensive integrated marketing strategies and campaigns for small and mid-sized businesses. Specialties include search engine optimization, website design, reputation management, social media marketing, lead generation, and marketing automation. Ken is a Master Duct Tape Marketing Certified Consultant, an Inbound Marketing Certified Professional (since 2010), and an SEO for Growth Consultant (stlouis.seoforgrowth.com). Ken is the author of Social Media Marketing for Restaurants and co-author of Reputation Management (Marketing Guides for Small Businesses). This compact guide explains how to create and protect your online reputation. Ken created and taught one of the first college credit Social Media Marketing classes in the US at St. Charles Community College. He has taught a course on Content Management Systems. He serves as Co-Chair of the St. Charles County Chambers of Commerce Technology Committee. Links to resources, websites & offers mentioned during the show: Changescape Web Social Media Marketing for Restaurants St Louis SEO for Growth Ken Tucker on LinkedIn Changescape Web on Facebook

Matt Watson is the Founder & CEO of Stackify based right here in Kansas City. He has been a developer and hacker for over 15 years and loves solving hard problems with code. He sold his first startup, VinSolutions, for $150 million and started Stackify to solve the biggest challenge he had as the CTO of VinSolutions.   Matt is highly skilled in the areas of SEO and content marketing.  Stackify receives hundreds of thousands of monthly visits as a result of Matt and his team’s successful content marketing. Learn Matt Watson's story and some of the awesome digital marketing he and his team are doing at Stackify.    

This first episode of the Local Business Leaders Podcast hosted by Phil Singleton is an introduction for listeners and subscribers, so you will know what this show is about, and also to help prepare upcoming guests as to the interview flow and the types of questions we’ll be asking. First, this is an interview style podcast that runs about 20 minutes per show. But this introductory first episode is going to be short and sweet, maybe only five or ten minutes long. Phil Singleton is a web designer, an SEO expert and an award-winning author.   Since 2005, Phil has owned and operated a digital agency based in Kansas City.   In 2016, Phil and John Jantsch, of Duct Tape Marketing, co-wrote, SEO for Growth: The Ultimate Guide for Marketers, Web Designers & Entrepreneurs.  SEO for Growth is an Amazon bestseller and has been listed as a top marketing book by Mashable, Oracle and The Huffington Post. It’s also been featured on MSNBC, Entrepreneur and Search Engine Journal, and was named by Forbes as the #1 SEO book on its list of "Essential SEO Books for Every Startup to Read".   Phil is also the author of a popular WordPress SEO plugin that has been downloaded over 100,000 times in the last year.  Phil’s latest startup venture, Podcast Bookers, is a service that helps marketers and executives get booked on established podcasts as way to develop authority, personal branding, improve Google search engine optimization, and most importantly, generate new leads and sales.