Podcasts about authority labs

"Building a personal brand" is often used as a euphemism for "building authority". But is it really the same thing? What does it mean when we say we are building a personal brand?  In this episode, Elizabeth Harr and Alastair McDermott discuss what a successful personal brand looks like, the 4 key elements of a personal brand strategy, and the signature styles that you can choose from when developing your personal brand. They also discuss tips for people who are finding it tough to create content, why reducing cognitive load on the consumer is important, and why research is key to building authority.  “The personal brand strategy is really a roadmap centered around four things: the definition of who you are and where you're going to lay a stake in the ground as an expert, the tools that you're going to need to make that personal brand visible, the skills required, and then actually implementing it.” -- Elizabeth Harr on The Recognized Authority podcast “The hallmark of a successful personal brand, is one that can take a complex subject matter and explain it simply. Succinctly and simply.” -- Elizabeth Harr on The Recognized Authority podcast

Building a business is time-consuming, and as business owners we often feel the pressure of "hustle culture". Is it possible to be successful without sacrificing quality time with your family?   In this episode, Justin Breen and Alastair McDermott discuss the power of networking at a high level, how to find the right partners, and how to build a successful company while still putting your family first. They also discuss what it means to be a global company, why it's not always about ROI, and how being grateful and thankful helps to uplift you and your business.  “It's really fascinating when you find the right people. You create value for the people who get it, and then they create value for you. And then you actually take action and build something. It all starts with mindset, which attracts the right people. That's really the foundational cornerstone.” -- Justin Breen on The Recognized Authority podcast “Podcasts and shows are transformational and transactional platforms for entrepreneurs and consultants. Getting on shows like these, I argue, for people like us is as important if not more important than being in Wall Street Journal or USA Today.” -- Justin Breen on The Recognized Authority podcast

How to Deal with Scarcity Mindset The "R-word", is starting to appear more often in my social network timelines, and has come up in conversations I've had with my coaching clients recently. Recession is a real fear. But that fear can have a toll on our brains, a real cost. The scarcity mindset can impair our decision-making and lead us to make choices that actually lead us into more scarcity. It can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. So how do we deal with it? I spoke with my friend Al McBride about this, and when I realized the value of the conversation, I asked him if I could hit record. This is our conversation as we explored the topic of scarcity mindset and how to deal with it practically. It's recorded live with no editing or scripting, so you get to hear our raw, unfiltered take on this topic.

LinkedIn is a vitally important social network for most of us in the B2B space. All the stats show that engagement on LinkedIn is growing rapidly: our clients and prospective clients are spending more time there, more content is being published, more events being attended, and more business conversations are happening. But that also means there's more competition —  so you need to do things the right way to grow your audience and stand out in the crowd. In this episode, Krista Mollion and Alastair McDermott discuss how to massively grow your network on LinkedIn, why being an expert commenter is important, and what you need to do to turn attention into sales. They also discuss the important details in your LinkedIn profile, why getting people to follow you is important, and how to stay focused on your ideal customer avatar. “I like your dog, but I don't want to see six posts about your dog. Make sure that five of those posts are teaching me about your service. Give me tips on how I can get better at podcasting, how I can monetize my business, how I can lose weight, how I can stop smoking, and I will pay you back by buying something from you sooner or later.” -- Krista Mollion on The Recognized Authority podcast “LinkedIn is a redistribution channel. Social media is not the end goal. The end goal is to get them to follow you back to wherever you want them to go. You're going to the city to get people and take them back to your beautiful woodside cottage.” -- Tracy Hazzard on The Recognized Authority podcast

Last chance to join Authority Labs. 1 seat remaining. The next iteration of the Authority Labs mastermind group is starting next Tues 27th Sept. Authority Labs is a high-touch group program aimed at helping experts & consultants - like you! - to build authority rapidly. There is one seat remaining in this cohort.  In this episode, I interview Rene Morozwich, one of the original members of the group. I asked her about her experience being part of the group to give you a flavour of what it's all about, and walk you through some of the details of the program  Please listen to see if it's something that might be a good fit to help move you forward in building your authority. If you're interested in learning more, let's get on a quick 15-20 min Zoom call. There's no hard sale pitch - I just want to help us figure out if the program is a good fit for you, and if you're a fit for the group! Book a call before Tuesday here

As consumers, we love to binge on content. Netflix discovered this a few years ago and started releasing entire seasons of TV shows in one go.  Podcasters know this because we get messages from listeners saying things like "Hey, I found your show at the weekend and just listened to 35 episodes". (It's astonishing, but it really does happen!)  YouTube creators know all about it, and try to make it so that it's not just one video, but their entire channel that is bingeworthy." In this episode, Tracy Hazzard and Alastair McDermott discuss what makes some content bingeworthy and other content NOT, why some creators' approach is far more effective, and why podcasts are particularly bingeable. They also discuss why blogging is still hugely valuable, the connection between deep expertise, curiosity, and curation, and how to use curation to help your audience find the content relevant for them. “When somebody is a deep expert, they curate really well within their area, they're choosing guests and topics really well, the way they ask their questions narrows in on the most valuable takeaways. That's their binge factor.” -- Tracy Hazzard on The Recognized Authority podcast “If we show care for others and we're putting our audience first, we're putting what's in your best interest first. If I do that, then I build trust faster than me saying "I'm an expert, I'm an authority". I don't have to say that, if I'm out there putting out things that are useful to you.” -- Tracy Hazzard on The Recognized Authority podcast

Creating & publishing content is time consuming. And yet it's an essential step in building authority. But if our target audience never sees our content, all that time and effort goes to waste. How can we ensure our audience sees our content? In this episode, Justin Simon and Alastair McDermott discuss content transformation, why & how to repurpose your content in a way that saves time, and frees you up to create more content, work on client projects, or simply take some time away from the office. They also discuss how you can build your audience, how niching down helps build authority, and the channels you can use to distribute your content to your audience. “We prioritize time to create content without blinking an eye. But when we think about distribution, it's almost always an afterthought.” -- Justin Simon on The Recognized Authority podcast “You will learn what it means to create a good post, and what that means for your audience. You'll only know by doing it, like I've learned what my audience likes, and what they don't like, by posting. I've tried different formats, and I have learned my voice. But I was only able to do that by posting consistently.” -- Justin Simon on The Recognized Authority podcast

Values are what we stand for, the principles or philosophy we live by. But for many businesses, their values don't mean a whole lot.  In this episode, Jeff Large and Alastair McDermott get into the weeds on business values, discussing why they're important, how they can help you build a good foundation for success, and why they don't work. They also discuss why podcasts work for business, what you should consider when planning your podcast, and mistakes to avoid. “Eight to fifteen episodes in, they're asking why don't I have more traction? But what we miss is you didn't do a good enough job at the beginning. If your foundation isn't strong enough to stand on its own, it's going to be a lot harder when you get to the promotion phase.” -- Jeff Large on The Recognized Authority podcast “Be authentic. Don't try to be something you're not. Figure out those values, figure out what is important to you, what actually makes you light up, when do you feel like you're thriving as a human. Try to pursue those types of things and just be yourself to a degree. Because if your foundation isn't straight, it's going to be really hard to be successful with the rest of it.” -- Jeff Large on The Recognized Authority podcast

If you're like most consultants & experts, you can spend significant amounts of time creating new presentations, editing slides and documents. Yet often your hard work goes to waste when you decide not to use them. There is a better way. In this episode, Carol Cox and Alastair McDermott discuss why you should create a signature talk, a simple framework to use for a signature talk, and how to repurpose your talk for different speaking engagements. They also discuss why sharing your personal story, vulnerabilities and imperfections is important, and how to avoid the expert trap to go from expert to thought leader. “Thought leadership is your area of expertise, your specialization, because that gives you your foundation. What do you want to see changed? The third element is your personal story, your personal journey, why does this matter to you? Then there's the fourth emotional courage to dig deep, and to share the vulnerability, the imperfections.” -- Carol Cox on The Recognized Authority podcast “A signature talk is the foundation of what you want to be known for, the high level lessons and takeaways that you want to share with your audience. We use this framework so you're not starting with a blank document when you're creating your presentation, then you can repurpose it for different formats of speaking engagements.” -- Carol Cox on The Recognized Authority podcast

It can be exhausting to be a self-employed consultant. Often you're working more hours than you did when you worked your last corporate job. You are hustling to complete client work, fill your sales pipeline, and create content that meaningfully differentiates you from your competition. In this episode, Louise Courville and Alastair McDermott discuss what it means to create a category of one, how to avoid being a commodity, and how frameworks can help you attract clients & build reputation. They also discuss the importance of taking a stand against something, why to use a unique marketing mechanism, and how accountability can help you be more productive. “How do you differentiate your message from everybody else? That's creating your framework. We pull the framework out and we usually make it into an alliteration or an acronym. We want it to be memorable and repeatable and portable.” -- Louise Courville on The Recognized Authority podcast “The last part is the solid point of view that is different than everybody else's. You have to take a stand against something, and for something.” -- Louise Courville on The Recognized Authority podcast

Publishing is a crucial part of building authority, and there are myriad formats and platforms to choose from, including social networks, podcasts, and email. Today's on-air coaching call features Judson Rollins, a pricing consultant who helps cargo transport providers increase their margins & grow their bottom line.  Judson and Alastair McDermott discuss how he can use podcasting, YouTube and email to build his authority and grow an audience. Alastair gives Judson some strategies and tips to get more visibility and maximize the value of his podcast. “Take a point of view! Don't... don't go with what everyone else is saying, don't try to be middle of the road. There really is no room to be the same voice that everyone else is being, it just doesn't work.” -- Judson Rollins on The Recognized Authority podcast “History repeats itself and humanity keeps making the same mistakes over and over. Even as business people, the more we understand about history, the more we understand about humanity, the better we can serve our fellow humans.” -- Judson Rollins on The Recognized Authority podcast

One of the best parts of running your own expertise-based business is that you get to choose the business model & strategy that you use. But with so many options available it can be hard to figure out the best way for you.  In this episode, Monique Mills and Alastair McDermott discuss how to start a consulting business, how to think about innovation, and how to price expert services. They also discuss why sales is just a conversation, how acceleration is important, and why you should remain consistent with publishing valuable information even when you're not getting a lot of engagement. “Remain encouraged because every time you post everyone is not going to respond or engage with it. Remain consistent as you share valuable information that's entertaining and informative.  Because if no one knows what your message is or is even aware you exist, it doesn't matter what service you provide or how smart you are.” -- Monique Mills on The Recognized Authority podcast “Sales is just having a conversation. There's nothing icky about it. Stop trying to push your product. Start with just trying to understand and know people.” -- Monique Mills on The Recognized Authority podcast

The consulting marketplace is very crowded. Standing out from the crowd is essential if you want to avoid being lumped in with other providers, being seen as a commodity. But how can you differentiate when you are offering similar services? In this episode, Austin L. Church and Alastair McDermott discuss how to position & package your offer in a different way so that you are differentiated from your competitors. They also discuss the most effective way you can build trust with an audience, why you should use your clients' language to frame the problem, and the correlation between your pricing and the clients that you attract. “At a high level, pricing is positioning. We often won't get the clients we want until we have premium prices that send the right signals. Think of Timex versus Rolex: people show more respect to a Rolex because it's expensive, even though they're functionally the same.” -- Austin L. Church on The Recognized Authority podcast “We all have a relationship with money, and we think that we're charging what we're charging for good reasons. These beliefs that are in our operating system, most of them we pick up in childhood. We aren't even aware that we're forming beliefs about money, and then we carry them into adulthood.” -- Austin L. Church on The Recognized Authority podcast

What does it mean to be radically authentic? In this episode, Gill Moakes and Alastair McDermott discuss how radical authenticity can help you stand out in business, how to figure out the captivating part of who you are, and how to share that with others. They also discuss how to be intentional about what you say and publish, how to make content creation easy for yourself, and how that can lead to business success. “Radical authenticity is an absolute non-negotiable if you want to be successful in business. It's the one thing that will always allow you to stand out. No one else can be you as long as you are being absolutely authentically true to yourself. When we share that, that's the captivating part of who we are.” – Gill Moakes on The Recognized Authority podcast “When it comes to growing a business, we consume so much conflicting advice that we almost become paralyzed. With this tsunami of advice that floods over us, we get so overwhelmed that we lose the ability to make decisions for ourselves. We want every single thing we choose to do in our business to be externally validated, or to be proven before we even try it.” -- Gill Moakes on The Recognized Authority podcast

Demand generation is the new buzzword in marketing, challenging the status quo. But is demand generation really different, and is it superior to lead generation? In this episode, Chris Walker and Alastair McDermott discuss why demand generation is important, how it is fundamentally different from other approaches to marketing, and how you can implement demand generation even as an independent consultant. They also discuss the "dark social" and why attribution in marketing doesn't work, how to create content that gets you customers immediately, and how to use social comments to test content ideas. “As an independent consultant most of your customers are not thinking about whether or not they need you. How do you get into the space where you're under consideration and educating those people from not knowing that they even understand the problems or the opportunities are whether or not you exist, to then wanting to come and work with you? That's the difference that unlocks business growth.” – Chris Walker on The Recognized Authority podcast “Take that information and put it out on the internet for free. A lot of people think once the information is out there "no one's going to want to work with me" because they have the information. The funny thing is the information is a commodity, somebody's gonna give it to them - it's just whether or not it's going to be you.” -- Chris Walker on The Recognized Authority podcast

Getting noticed by the right people - for the right reason - is what marketing is all about. But getting noticed isn't easy when there's an entire internet competing for attention. So how do we do it? In this episode, Jim James and Alastair McDermott discuss why and how to get noticed, the practical elements of PR, and what are the elements of viral content. They also discuss how to curate a book from podcast interviews, why listening first is such an important part of the process, and how to get in alignment with your audience. “I think that one of the qualities of an authority is they stand out, and conformity rarely helps anybody to stand out. You have to be willing to take a little bit of risk, do something that shows that you're passionate about the subject.” – Jim James on The Recognized Authority podcast “Many people start talking about themselves before listening to what other people are interested in. It's the social equivalent of going to a party and not even asking someone else's name but just saying "Hi, my name is Jim, let me tell you about me".” -- Jim on The Recognized Authority podcast

Creating and publishing content is essential to getting visibility and building authority. But content creation can be hugely time consuming, from writing initial outlines and drafts to actually writing long form content, or recording, re-recording and editing! Is there a way to work smarter, not harder? In this episode, Jaclyn Schiff and Alastair McDermott discuss content transformation: why and how to repurpose your content in a way that saves time and energy, and frees you up to create more content, work on client projects, or simply take some time away from the office! They discuss the fundamental differences between various content formats, why it's important to reorder a conversation, and how to use content curation to create high quality aggregate content.  “You're doing it for business purposes: to build brand awareness and to market yourself. That means thinking how do I position this, what can people benefit and learn from, how do I position it so that it will grab their attention?” – Jaclyn Schiff on The Recognized Authority podcast “Fundamentally we want to do more with our content because our audience, the people we're trying to reach, they are never in just one place.” -- Jaclyn Schiff on The Recognized Authority podcast

If you've done any research on marketing your consulting business, you'll almost certainly have come across the advice to start an email newsletter or list. It's a relationship with your audience that you own directly, without the interposition of a third party platform. You'll often hear the phrase "don't build on rented ground" in relation to social platforms, and email is an answer to that. The mantra for many marketers is "build a list!"  In this episode, Dylan Redekop and Alastair McDermott discuss how to grow an email newsletter, the different types of incentives we can offer subscribers to join the list, and why giving away value for free is crucial. They also discuss how to create a nurture sequence to welcome and prep new subscribers, how to use email courses, quizzes & challenges to increase signups, and why the welcome email is so important. “When people sign up to our newsletters it's important for us to keep in mind that the inbox is a very personal space, and so when we are invited there we need to be really considerate of that.  We need to make sure that we're sending something that is worth sending and they will get value in receiving.” – Dylan Redekop on The Recognized Authority podcast “When something like Elon Musk buying Twitter happens, it'd make me a little bit nervous if that was my only source of engaging with my audience. But since I have grown an email list, I've taken those people and I've brought them into my own ecosystem where I can communicate with them, regardless of the platform I'm using.” -- Dylan Redekop on The Recognized Authority podcast

In this episode, I speak with Olympic gold medalist Joe Jacobi about performance in sport and business. This conversation takes a slightly different road from other episodes, as we talk about the relationship between success and identity, why energy is crucial for performance & capacity, and the importance of connecting with nature.  We also go a little tactical, discussing how to why course correction is crucial to performance, and how a coaching intervention won an Olympic gold medal. “I've been on a start line of the Olympic Games where I've seen athletes who were so confident they believed in what they were doing, and they didn't have a good race. I've also seen athletes lacking confidence that went on to win a medal.” – Joe Jacobi on The Recognized Authority podcast “If I told you a course correction would actually get you a gold medal at the Olympic Games, most people would say "You're crazy, that doesn't make sense! That's not the story of LeBron James or Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan - just gritty and resilient and being better and stronger. That's not how sport works."  I'm here to tell you it can work like that.” -- Joe Jacobi on The Recognized Authority podcast

Creating and publishing content is a cornerstone of the authority building process. Audio podcasts are one of the options we have to do just that, and there are many choices we can make around podcasting that will impact on how much it helps us build authority. In this episode, Megan Dougherty and Alastair McDermott discuss how to plan your podcast strategically in order to build your authority, how you can use podcasts for research, and how guesting on other people's podcasts fits into your authority building mix. They also discuss why starting your podcast with a short run initial season is a good idea, the dynamics of conversational interviews, and how to grow your podcast audience.  “I think the networking and that relationship cultivation element of podcasting can't be overstated. "Hey, will you be on my podcast?" is this really natural opener to a relationship and you get so many touch points in the process to make a good impression, and so many reasons in the future to follow up again.” -- Megan Dougherty on The Recognized Authority podcast “According to the data, yes, your podcast should be on YouTube. A shocking number of people listen to podcasts on YouTube, they just put the videos on plays in the background, they listen to it while they're going about their day.” -- Megan Dougherty on The Recognized Authority podcast

Proposals are an essential part of winning business, but writing a consulting proposal is often a hugely time-consuming and frustrating process. In this episode, Reuben Swartz and Alastair McDermott discuss how to create a stress-free consulting proposal, what elements are essential in the proposal document, and why presenting the proposal is such an important part of the sales process. They also discuss how you should think about proposals (and why proposals are not brochures), how to use options and pricing curves, and where you can find proposal templates and resources. “If you do the proposal right it doesn't feel like a necessary evil, which is what it used to feel like to me. It's kind of fun, almost like getting warmed up for the game. It's not something that you have to loath or be stressed out about.” -- Reuben Swartz on The Recognized Authority podcast “When I started out, I was excited but also terrified and stressed out about how I supposed to write the proposal. I've subsequently learned that it happens to a lot of people, because I don't think we equip folks with the right way of thinking about proposals, and it turns it into this unnecessarily stressful event.” -- Reuben Swartz on The Recognized Authority podcast

Books have long been associated with authority and thought leadership. "He wrote the book on it", "She wrote the book on it" - that's how we describe a true expert in a field. "Consultant, author and speaker" is the byline for many thought leaders, and even the word "author" is the major part of authority. But writing a good, valuable, and useful book is a difficult, time-consuming process. Or is it? In this episode, Steve Gordon and Alastair McDermott discuss why a book is the gold standard of authority building, why outlines are so crucial, and how to write your book in 30 days. They also discuss the mistakes most authors make when writing, how to use a book as a referral tool, and how a podcast can help create strategic relationships. “I had to write several more books to figure out what I was doing that allowed me to write them so fast. We started refining that process, and now our clients are getting them done in about 90 days. That's about 30 days of dedicated writing, 30 days of getting it ready to publish and publishing it, and 30 days of promotion and launch.” -- Steve Gordon on The Recognized Authority podcast “As an expert who does really complicated and intangible things for your clients, a book is a great way to let them sample ahead of time. They experience what it would be like to work with you, because they're interacting with your thinking.” -- Steve Gordon on The Recognized Authority podcast

As independent consultants, our approach to publishing content is often haphazard and inconsistent: the topic depending on what issues are top of mind, and the schedule based on our client workload. One way to ameliorate that is to create a content marketing plan: some guiderails to help us stay on track. In this episode,Heather Chavin and Alastair McDermott discuss what a content marketing strategy looks like for an independent consultant, how thinking of it as a funnel can be useful for content ideation, and why time management is key to successful content production. They also discuss how to dig deeper into your client's problem and symptoms to create content ideas, how to analyse what's working in your content strategy, and why being number 1 is so important. “The ability to craft the time to stop and reflect, and move into problem solving mode or move into development mode is really important.  Otherwise, just expect more of the same. Tomorrow will be just like today.” -- Heather Chavin on The Recognized Authority podcast “We're willing to pay more for number one. We're willing to trust number one more because other people have told us number one is number one, right? Social proof is built into it.  If you want to cut through the noise, you need to be number one for the person who's looking for you.” -- Heather Chavin on The Recognized Authority podcast

Running a consulting business can be exhausting. How can we make consulting easier to sell, easier to price, and easier to predict? In this episode, David C. Baker and Alastair McDermott discuss the business of consulting, including why research is crucial in positioning and standing out from your competitors, how to deal with the fears of niching down, and how to expand your services in a tightly specialized business. They also discuss how to create a marketing plan for a consulting business, why we are always "leaving money on the table", and what keeps David on his toes in business! “Research is a huge part of differentiation. Doing proprietary research and making that available to your clients is the only thing I know of that cannot be replicated easily.” -- David C. Baker “What drives most consultants forward is that they're terrified of no longer learning something every day. Take that urge and keep looking at the same things a little bit differently, try to notice even deeper patterns.” -- David C. Baker “Part of the definition of good positioning is that you have an identifiable, reachable target. If you're struggling with that, then you need to revisit your positioning.” -- David C. Baker ➡️ Learn more about Authority Labs: https://therecognizedauthority.com/authority-labs/ ➡️ Learn more about the webinars: https://therecognizedauthority.com/webinars

In this episode reposted from Philip Morgan's The Self-Made Expert Podcast, Alastair and Philip discuss what the journey to authority looks like, why you should cultivate expertise, and how publishing develops your thinking. They also discuss when authority matters, how you know if you have authority, and the importance of specialization in building authority. ➡️ Learn more about Authority Labs: https://therecognizedauthority.com/authority-labs/

Civil discourse is a skillset that seems to be in increasingly rare supply but if we have any hope of solving our toughest challenges, it’s going to require men of all races, religious beliefs, and sides of the political aisle to come together to have these challenging discussions. And, that’s why I’ve really been looking forward to getting my conversation with Byron Davis to you guys. I knew that we wouldn’t agree on everything we discussed but I was pleasantly surprised that we were significantly closer than those who prey on the outraged would have the population believe. We talk about the importance of the crucial conversations, why and how our egos get in the way, what “dismantling the system” means, the “bait and switch” of the BLM organization’s messaging, cancel culture, and the proper role of government in our lives. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS A lack of maturity Challenging your ego Demanding more of yourself Police tactics Dysfunction in the system Cultivating a community Perpetuating a problem Investing financial resources Creating virtual fathers Impacting the world Moving the needle Counteracting the bad apples Calling out bad cops Globalizing our economy Addressing systemic issues Confusing the narrative Abdicating certain freedoms Stewarding your family Accumulating wealth Operating at your best Speaking truths BYRON DAVIS I’m honored to introduce you to my guest today. His name is Byron Davis and through his ministry, Legacy Men, his goal is to equip and empower men of all walks of life to be the difference within the world around them. Byron and I hadn’t ever had a conversation before this so I didn’t know a whole lot about him and his work prior to our conversation but I was so impressed with his knowledge, articulate thoughts on some of the most difficult topics we can discuss, and his genuine desire to lead from the front. He’s a former USA National Swim team member and American record holder. Now, he’s a speaker, author, and the founder of Authority Labs which helps leaders master their message and increase their influence. BATTLE READY Look, most men know they want to improve in some area of their life. And, generally, most of you know what it is you need to do. But let’s be honest, knowing what to do and actually doing it are separate issues. And, I know, if you’re anything like me, that developing the discipline to do the work required is extremely challenging. That’s why I created 30 Days to Battle Ready. It’s a free program designed to give you a 30 day track to run on which will equip you with the tools you need to develop discipline, maintain consistency, and finally achieve your goals – whatever they are (which we’ll help you identify if needed). If you want to tee the rest of your year up for success on the professional or personal front, sign up for the free Battle Ready program at www.orderofman.com/battleready. Read full article https://www.orderofman.com/287 Want maximum health, wealth, relationships, and abundance in your life? Sign up for our free course, 30 Days to Battle Ready. Join our exclusive brotherhood, the Iron Council. Subscribe to our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/orderofman Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter Please leave us a rating and review Support Order of Man by picking up some new merchandise in our store

FULL SHOW NOTES[ INTRO music]00:10 Aaron Weiche: Episode 19. Navigating the Unknown.00:16 Intro: Welcome to the SaaS Venture podcast. Sharing the adventure of leading and growing a Bootstrap SaaS company. Hear the experiences, challenges, wins and losses shared in each episode. From Aaron Weiche of GatherUp and Darren Shaw of Whitespark. Let's go.00:43 Aaron: Welcome to the SaaS Venture podcast. I'm Aaron.00:46 Darren Shaw: And I'm Darren.00:47 Aaron: And the way we usually start our episodes is just by catching up. What's going on? What's happened lately? 00:56 Darren: Yeah, what's going on, Aaron? What's going on? 01:00 Aaron: Well, it seems like we're all... Have been doing the same thing for quite a number of weeks now. And it's interesting, until COVID-19 and everything else, anytime someone would post the Bill Murray Groundhog's Day meme on Facebook, or Twitter, or something else, I just never gave it much thought. And, literally, the last... I would say for me the last 10 days, I absolutely feel that way. Like it is such a lather, rinse, repeat of the same day with such little variance, it's wild.01:34 Darren: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. My days are a little bit all over the place actually. I just keep working on different things and I'm getting pulled in many different directions right now. Things are changing quite a bit actually for me, I feel. Yeah. Things have been really up in the air and I feel a little scattered.01:51 Aaron: Well, I will take some of your variance. I don't know if it's my attitude, or my outlook, or whatever else, but it definitely doesn't feel like enough variance for me. And I think some of it is just other things that I enjoy, like conferences, and things like that, all shut off. Sports, right? It's baseball season and every night I love sitting down with my Minnesota Twins on in the background, and happily writing a blog post, working on a contract, whatever that might be, just getting some small things done while I'm watching baseball, and that diversion of sports for me, isn't there, and that leaves a big hole.02:38 Darren: Apparently, there is a huge surge in Marble Runs sports. [chuckle] Have you seen this? They've got a big table and you're watching the marbles race through a track. Massive surge in viewership there.02:52 Aaron: Can you bet on it? 02:54 Darren: Probably, yeah. Bet on the white marble.02:58 Aaron: I need those small sources of joy.03:00 Darren: You can start watching that while you're doing contracts and stuff.03:03 Aaron: Yeah? 03:04 Darren: Yeah.03:05 Aaron: Interesting, just as we were talking before and prepped some notes, we definitely have some things to walk through, but I think a great place to start is both of us being remote and to some extent work-from-home. Me not so much really work-from-home, but with having a separate office, but has it felt that much different for you? Family life, at home life, what's that been like for you Darren? 03:31 Darren: Oh, yeah. It's kind of weird really. Because there is the sense that we're not going out anymore, and so a bit of isolation. But it doesn't feel that different to me. I've run a remote company since 2005, I've worked from home since 2005, and so our entire way of working... The way that I work is completely the same. No changes here. The only thing is, I see the Sun a little bit less right now. I'm just in the house and not going outside really. We're not even going for walks really, because Jill and Violet, my wife and daughter, have had mild symptoms, so we're supposed to be really isolated. I've been getting out into the backyard lately, but basically, from a work perspective, it didn't change much for us because we're 100% remote. We've always been that way. How about you? 04:27 Aaron: Yeah, same for myself personally and the GatherUp team. I've only been remote the last five and a half... Almost six years now, but long enough to forget the days of commuting, and in-office, and everything else. So that shift wasn't that hard, where for the rest of our company, which I should drop in I guess really quick just because I'm trying to get good at my references. Our group of products that Alpine Software Group had purchased that are Aramark tech that we used to call ASG MarTech, we actually rolled out a full brand for. So now it's called Traject. Traject includes the seven companies, SocialTools, Cyfe, Authority Labs, ourselves, Grade.us, we're all under this Traject umbrella. So we launched that just prior to everything with COVID-19 taking off. And I need to make that note before I start saying things, 'cause I'm trying to get good in being part of re-brands myself. Re-training yourself on how you refer to things.05:28 Darren: For sure.05:29 Aaron: So, for the Traject team, there's about 60-70% of the team as an overall that's all in-office and located outside of Seattle in Bellevue. And so it was interesting to watch. That first week, especially, was a struggle for them in moving from a centralized office to remote work and many of them have not been doing it right, they're working from the kitchen table and things like that, and especially with having others at home, if your spouse works, they might be just 10 feet away, and they're working remote, right? And it's like... I don't have any of those problems, my wife stopped working last year, it's a little different at my house, I have four kids that are home all the time now, ages 4 to 16.06:15 Darren: Yeah. She's working. Oh, she's working hard. [chuckle]06:19 Aaron: Oh my gosh. And they've done fabulous with leaving me alone, and they know if the office doors are shut, to cool it with dad. And luckily, in the last two weeks, their distance learning e-school has fired up, and so that occupies anywhere from two to six hours of their day depending upon what's going on and everything else. So, yeah, same as you, I feel really lucky that things haven't changed that much. But, yeah, the same... My 10-year-old daughter just said to me last night like, "Dad, every like hour or so, I'm gonna come get you and just make you go outside for five minutes." She's like, "You're in that hole all day." And I was like, "Yeah, you're right. That would probably be a healthy thing."06:56 Darren: Once an hour though, that'd be tough. I don't know, how about every two hours? 07:00 Aaron: [chuckle] I'm gonna try to appease the troops. If they have a suggestion for me at this point I'm just gonna take it because, yeah, I feel for them and all the small things that they're missing out. My kids all love school, but man, they are just missing friends, and socialization, everything else.07:19 Darren: Oh, man. So much, yeah. I used to have a pretty closed-door policy with my office when Violet comes home from school and stuff the office is closed, you don't come in. But now it's like, she wants to come and say hi to me, I'm gonna stop whatever I'm doing, just take some time to chat with her, "Oh, what are you working on? What are you playing with these days?" And you just hear her stories and just spend that time, because she doesn't have any other social interaction. Gosh, neither do I, so it's like, "Yeah, go ahead, interrupt me anytime, come on in and we'll have a little chat for a few minutes and then I'll get back to work." I think it's the way it has to be right now.07:56 Aaron: For sure. My kids have siblings to play with. They're very blessed, they have a lot to do. We're not in a traditional neighborhood, it's a little more spread out, so there's a couple of acres for them to be outside and play on without getting into some of those things and whatever else, so I'm more fortunate than not on a lot of things. I think the biggest emotional toll on me is just, for however long now? 12 years, 15 years, everything for me professionally has been growth, success, constantly going up, right? You still have your small struggles and dark weeks, or months, and whatever else, but really, the overall momentum is always forward. And I've never been a part of something like this where that momentum has been pulled back and you go from this growth mindset to a survival and circle the wagons to some extent. And I think that's been the hardest part on my mood.08:52 Darren: Yeah, it's a real shift from, "Okay, we've gotta build all this stuff and do all these things and keep growing forward," to like, "Oh wow. What do we have to do to protect at this point?" So, yeah, that survival mode instinct has kicked in and, yeah, it's tough to have that shift, and it doesn't feel good. All that growth always feels good and that push for success, but, yeah, it feels bad to be like, "I'm gonna make these tough decisions now."09:21 Aaron: Yeah. And still trying to find the success within it. I was listening to the last weekend local podcast on LocalU and I think Blumenthal coined a term of "sur-thrival". So it's like, how do you find ways to thrive in surviving? 09:37 Darren: Yeah. Totally.09:38 Aaron: I instantly grabbed on to that and I was like, "Yeah, that's a great way to refer to it. I totally agree."09:43 Darren: Yeah, and I'm seeing it actually, I'm seeing lots of opportunities in my business to thrive a little bit. And so we're trying to put in some defensive moves just to make sure that we can ride it out and some offensive moves. And so, I don't know, I'm feeling okay about it. The dust is starting to settle from the first few weeks of it really getting crazy and just starting to settle into this new way of how we're gonna operate, this new economy, and identifying the markets that are opportunities.10:14 Aaron: Yeah, for sure. And I agree with you, it's like there's a first big tidal wave where there was a lot more panic, less information, nothing had really been settled into, and I feel like this week, I feel like that wave has come, crashed, and it's now pulled back out. I think there's gonna be more waves, maybe not as big or aggressive, but it is starting to get a little different and a little more than norm.10:42 Darren: Yeah, and it's kinda like... That's happening for me, I have that feeling that, okay, well, those first few weeks I was just scrambling trying to figure out, "Okay, what the hell are we gonna do?" And I couldn't really focus on all of the regular operations. I was busy filling out government relief applications and sorting out all this kind of stuff. And so, I feel like, while that's happening for me, it's also happening for every other business in the world, where we're starting to kinda, "Okay, the dust is settling, now let's get back to business." It's like, what does the new business look like? What does the new way of operating look like? And all those businesses are gonna start coming out of the woodwork again and the economy will pick up. Sales have been super quiet, but we're starting to see more leads come in now as people are looking at alternatives to whatever else they're using.11:33 Aaron: Yeah. You just stated about five different things I wanna break down. One thing that you kind of mentioned, I know from you and I, we've both been talking professionally, we've also talked as friends during this, just 'cause you need that support in those outlets, but I know you've had to make some hard decisions around your business, and Whitespark, and some employee moves. What has that been and what does that look like? 12:01 Darren: Yeah. So once this all came out and we started realizing what a massive impact it's gonna have on the economy, we had to look at our expenses. Where are our expenses, what can we cut? So the first thing of course was to just take an axe to my credit card statement and be like, "What can I cross off here? What due is absolutely not essential? So we did some major cuts there. It's kind of crazy, I cut like $5,000 in monthly expenses off my credit card. And after I did it, I was like, "Well, dang, why didn't I do that a year ago?" It's just like so much.12:30 Aaron: You weren't forced to.12:32 Darren: Yeah, I wasn't forced to. It's like you kinda get into this. "Okay, well, finances are good, and yeah, those services are pretty good, but are they that essential?" And so I was able to do some pretty good cuts there. And then of course the next most major expense for our company... We don't have an office, we don't have a lot of overhead, it's really labor. So there were a couple of layoffs. One was on the development side, another one was on our GMB management team. We were actually in a pretty good growth mode with the GMB management team, where we were bringing on about 10 to 15 new clients every single month. And so we had just crossed that threshold where we're like, "Okay, well, we need to get someone hired and trained in order to meet that growing demand." And so we had just hired somebody and she had taken on a handful of clients right when this hit. And so we knew that that one was gonna start backing off, we were actually gonna start losing clients, so we had to make a lay-off there.13:38 Darren: It's really sad. She was amazing. We'd love to hire her back as soon as we can. So, once we can, we would love to hire her back. So a couple of layoffs and then another thing is that the government of Canada introduced what's called a work-sharing program. I think they always had it, but they loosened up some of their guidelines around it and made it easier to get into it. So we reduced hours with the team across the whole Canadian team and just to the point where they could still maintain all of their health benefits. So they still get all their health benefits, they reduce their hours by about 37%, and then the government work-sharing program tops that up for them. So it actually doesn't have a huge impact on them, it shouldn't be too bad, but it results in pretty significant payroll savings for the company. So all of those things are the defensive moves to make sure that we're shoring up some resources in the bank, because honestly, Whitespark has been in this growth mode where we've been running the line, where certainly we've been profitable, but it's not like we had millions in the bank or even hundreds of thousands in the bank.14:50 Darren: We were always like, "Okay, once we have enough more revenue, we hire somebody else," we'd have more expenses, we'd expand our servers. As a Bootstrap company, I think that's just what you do, you continue to grow your resources and your ability to build faster as you get more revenue. And so that's certainly what we're doing. So we didn't have this huge cushion. So my defensive measures were to try and create a little bit of that cushion, so it was tough. What was it like for you? 15:23 Aaron: Yeah. Well, one, I commend you, because those are hard decisions and just so many decisions in this are all about the balance between short-term and long-term effects. You make difficult short-term decisions to survive long term. And it's so important, I and we, the company, have definitely benefited from being part of a larger org within this. So, let's just say, as I commented to you, if GatherUp hadn't sold and we were still all by ourselves, I will say we had cash reserves for three months of zero income and 100% of our burn rate to be able to pay bills. We had done a good job of always investing our growth, but we always looked at... We definitely put money away when we were doing well within our growth and created a little bit more margin to have... Whether it was something like this, a crisis, economic downturn, or an opportunity where we were like, "Oh, if there is a small product, or a small team, we can purchase... " Or whatever else we wanted, to have at least a little bit of cash on hand.16:36 Aaron: But even within that, if it was just me and running the company, we would have made similar moves to what you did. There probably would have been... Obviously, the first thing is analyze every cost, cut everything out that isn't necessary, but then, just with about any company, bodies are your most significant expense. And, yeah, we probably would've at least had to make one, two, possibly even three moves, depending upon how we saw it, just to ensure that everything else was in the best position possible to survive at least a three-month if not a six-month economic winter of what we're just starting to get into.17:18 Darren: That timing, it's so unknown. That's the big thing, is this uncertainty, right? It's like, okay, we're seeing some drops, it's not that significant, but who knows, maybe in three months the US economy is gonna be so shut down because of this virus that we're in huge trouble. So if there's no spending happening anywhere, then some of the services and software that we provide will certainly get cut, and so it's trying to make sure that you can weather the storm. And that's what I think we've been trying to do. And it's nice that you're in that position. The timing actually of the acquisition really worked out in your benefit, certainly for the founders, and also, I think, just having that huge strong umbrella above you that can help protect from some of this, is really a nice place to be.18:10 Aaron: Yeah, no, who would have known? No way to tell, but yes, this scenario, it just shows you how much timing is a part of everything in life. So many different angles with it. But, overall, I really feel like Traject has done an awesome job. One is very early communicated the position of the company, the financial health of the company, and that they were already in talks with... We've talked before... There was a couple of layers between the very top level of the company down into the group we belong to. So immediately, there was strong communication, hit upon things that people would be most concerned about, and delivered a lot of good messaging there. And really, overall, the company just kept reinforcing, people first. This is tricky. Take care of yourself first. We want you to be emotionally and physically healthy, that comes first. If you're taking care of that, then we'll get at working and keeping the company healthy and all that kind of stuff.19:12 Darren: Right. For sure.19:14 Aaron: We basically have weekly AMAs with the exec team with Traject. So people are able to ask, "What's changing? Do you see anything different? What other decisions have you made?" So, just a really quick and easy way for whatever is a concern for people to hear that, and also for others, instead of those happening one-to-one in an email to the CEO or whatever else, everybody's able to hear it asked out loud and hear the answer to it, which I think...19:28 Darren: I love that. Oh, man, I'm gonna do that. I've been doing a weekly call with my team, but I always have a weekly call anyways, where I try to communicate the current health of the company, what's been happening in the company, what we're seeing in terms of our revenue and our different lines of business. So try to communicate that and be clear about that, but the AMA thing is a really good thing. I often get questions after the call, like people will just ping me on Slack, and I think it'd be really helpful for everyone to have that, and just, "Okay, that's the end of my spiel, now let's get into the AMA portion of the call." So I really like that idea and I think I'm gonna open that up for Monday's call.20:18 Aaron: Yeah, no, I think it makes people feel more comfortable. Everybody hears the same questions and the same answers, which is also great. And then lastly, they just put together a really good prioritization on, "This is what we're doing first. This is what we're doing second. This is what we're doing third," so the same things that we've just discussed on reducing expenses, different allocations, looking at this. And at the bottom of their list is, if these things don't work based on where things are at, then we potentially look at a percentage of salary cut across the board. And then, if that didn't work, then yeah, we'd have to look at the elimination of some positions. But the great thing, I think, it lays out is, one, it helps people understand the playbook that they're operating off of, which allows everyone to buy into the strategy. Two, it really helps them understand, there's a whole bunch of things before that comes on the table, and the thing I keep preaching to our team is, the thing to be grateful for right now is you have some control over this. We have our jobs, we have our personal income, and doing productive work is such a healthy thing right now.21:27 Darren: For sure.21:28 Aaron: Yeah. And a great distraction, and do what you can to not be paralyzed, or inundated, or overwhelmed, by all of this that's there, and focus on your work, because being successful with what you are doing is gonna contribute to the survival and some success inside of this, and making it to the other side. So when you get into that high level of like, what can you control and what can't you control, well, we can't control the economy and what happens to our customers businesses in full, and all of those kind of things, but we can control how well are we doing at our job, are we doing the right things that are needed to survive right now? Are we doing everything we can to help our customers so we're contributing to their survival? Those are all positives that I've personally worked hard to remind our team. Like, "Be grateful for that and let that gratefulness, and what you have, be the passion into what you're doing right now, in a difficult time for some to find that motivation."22:26 Darren: Yeah, totally. There's so much value in that. When I have a a really productive day in the office, you feel good about it, right? So it's a nice thing that people can lean on when things seem so bad. Being able to take your mind off of the struggles of the world and the stress of the uncertainty of what's gonna happen with this virus, and all the health concerns, and being able to just put your head into some work for a while and get that sense of accomplishment. I find a lot of value in that and I think it's a great thing to communicate to the team.22:58 Aaron: Yeah, you're exactly right. I've said multiple times in communication with stuff where we've elevated something very small and then pushed it out to everyone on our weekly stand-up or Slack, or both, whatever, is like, "No win is too small right now. Celebrate the smallest thing like it is a Super Bowl championship right now, because it's so important for the psyche and for your emotional well-being professionally," right? 23:26 Darren: Yeah, definitely. Yeah, yeah, it's great stuff. I'm gonna work on implementing some of that with my weekly calls too.23:33 Aaron: Nice.23:34 Darren: Yeah.23:35 Aaron: The next thing, I think, for us, the big shift almost immediately was just really realizing and I think all companies, especially SaaS, is in this boat right now, it's like, retention is absolutely the name of the game right now. Just as you said. And the same for us, leads, sales opportunities, whatever else, are like, I don't think they're even 10% of what they were in January, February, and early March.24:01 Darren: Right. That's amazing. I would say, if I had to guess in terms of leads for us, it's probably down only maybe 50%. Yeah. So our leads are actually still pretty solid. We're actually seeing quite a few people looking at cutting ongoing recurring citation services. So, let's say we're using Yext or Moz Local, or some of these other services, they are looking at our one-time offering and saying, "This is a much better way to go for citation management." So we're actually seeing pretty decent leads there, and then our software leads are... I'd say they're down about 50%.24:43 Aaron: Yeah. Do you feel like some of those people are looking like, "Okay, I want something around this service, but I want a more cost-effective solution?" And is Whitespark that compared to those. So you're gonna see some trickle down from those.24:54 Darren: I think it's exactly what I'm seeing, and I think also, on the software side, we're quite reasonably priced, and so I feel like a lot of people that are with more expensive solutions are looking to us. Or let's say they had to cut a $3000 a month SEO engagement with a good firm, and so they're like, "Okay, we're gonna take this in-house and now our marketing director has to manage some of this," and they're like, "Okay, local search software," and then we come up. And so I think that's where we're starting to see some of this. It's like people cutting expenses elsewhere and then finding us 'cause we are generally more cost-effective.25:33 Aaron: Yeah, that's awesome. I think that can be a big win. A forced changeover. Just the same as you analyze your credit card and like, "Why am I paying for this," or "What can I do," right? When people are doing that, and then you are positioned that way, that can definitely be a great migration from competitors to you at this time, which is awesome for you.25:57 Darren: Yeah. So we're actually... As part of our offensive moves, is we're putting up some landing pages that are specifically around that and we'll start marketing those.26:05 Aaron: Excellent. Yeah. With that stuff I always think of... I used to... Back in the day when... Building and running, maintaining websites, has worked with a lot of banks, and they would do a lot of campaigns on switching. Just like, "Here's what it's like to switch your checking account from Wells Fargo to us as a community bank."26:22 Darren: Oh, man, that's a great idea.26:26 Aaron: Yeah, just really laying it all out. So they're able to see like, "Hey, here's what's different, here's how we handle it, here's what we need." And just making it so that the consumer felt really comfortable with like, "Oh, this switch happens a lot. It happened so much. It's all laid out. And here's the majority of my questions. I feel really good about contacting them to do this."26:28 Darren: Yeah, I see the same thing in the cellphone companies. Telecom stuff. And so, yeah, I'll definitely look to that for inspiration for how to position those landing pages and those marketing messages.26:45 Aaron: Yeah. What was really interesting to me when you see... And just the way SaaS and recurring revenue works, March was still our best month in the history of the company. Every...26:58 Darren: That's amazing.27:06 Aaron: Yeah, minus one, two, three months over the last six years, it's like up into the right every single month. You know that predictable revenue, it compounds everything else, that's why so many people love software as a service. And so, with everything that's gone on, new clients early in the month, we signed a big deal midway through the month, there's still all these positive things going on, and most of the customers, some canceled, and others, we've been working with ways to help them with their accounts, but that stuff won't kick in until April. And just as you and I were talking before, it's like, I can already see from our predictive revenue tools that our April billing will be about 6% to 7% down from our March billing. And getting back into the psyche and whatever, I was like, "I've watched that number go up." The months where it didn't grow, it was maybe a quarter percent that it went backward, or almost even, but never even a full percentage point, and all things considered, a 6%-7% drop and considering a lot of that, is just paused billing. I think that's somewhat of a positive signal at this point after this first wave of crashing.28:29 Darren: Totally, yeah. Absolutely. I feel the same way, it's like, "Man, the losses are not that bad." And so my confidence grows every week, where I look at the numbers and I'm like, "Okay, I think this is gonna be okay." My confidence is growing but then I'm also a little... I don't wanna be overly confident because there's still so much uncertainty. It could get really bad in the next couple of months. So I don't wanna be overly confident, but I'm starting to feel like, "Okay, well, if we all settle in and this is the way it is, then there's still certainly some thrive opportunities." How can we thrive in this situation? And if we tap into those, certainly we're gonna see some losses, but how much of that can we recover with new initiatives? 29:14 Aaron: Exactly. I kinda look at it, as I mentioned earlier, baseball is a favorite sport of mine, right? It's like a baseball game and we're pretty much in the second inning right now. There's a lot of game left to be played, but it's underway, we're out there, a couple of things have already happened, and for us in these first couple of innings, the biggest thing around that retention is, we changed our cancel process. So instead of just being able to go... Hit "Cancel", drop a quick... We ask, "Alright, tell us why you're cancelling," and getting a little bit of info. We changed that to, you hit "Cancel", now you get a pop-up that says, "Hey, just so you're aware, with COVID-19 and everything going on, we get it, let's have a conversation and let's figure out how to keep you on board with us. Whether it's a reduction in billing, we need to pause your billing for a month." But we put a bunch of things in place and then we built that framework for our customer success team so that they could manage it, where they weren't coming to me and saying, "Alright, here's what this customer wants. They want 10% off this month," or whatever else.30:16 Aaron: We gave them a framework so that they could make those offers, handle those decisions, and take care of it right in the moment with the customers. So it really felt a win for them, win for our customer, win for the business, especially if we kept them from cancelling just to say like, "Oh, great, yeah, I'm a restaurant, or I'm an agency that serves restaurants and hotels. I just went to zero income, but I still wanna retain this data, 'cause they're gonna need this when they come back, what can we do with it?"30:45 Darren: Yeah, that's really smart. Yeah, actually, we put some measures like that in place too, and then we talked to your team about it, and got some more ideas, and it's so valuable. I think that is one of the big lessons for any of our listeners that are also doing SaaS, if you haven't put something like that in place, get that up immediately. Some kind of retention recovery program, right? 31:09 Aaron: Yea. 'Cause, yeah, the cancels are just likely gone. It's so much harder to get them... Say things recover in three months, getting them to physically come back, sign up, even if you market to them, send them messages, they've already... They've mentally divorced the situation. But if you're able to reduce billing or even pause a month or two of billing, then when it comes back, then it's like, "Okay, great, things are back, close to normal, are you good? Let's turn billing back on." Just so much easier of a process, and you need to do that when you're dropping or pausing revenue like that, you need more of an instant on when things return, instead of having to work a marketing program around it.31:49 Darren: Yeah. We actually had some reductions on our support team too, and our support is still as... It's certainly seen a drop in tickets, but it's still fairly active. And so I didn't wanna overwhelm my support team by having them talk to everybody that wants to cancel, 'cause there's a lot of them, obviously, they're coming in. And so we did the same kind of thing, but it's completely automated. So when you hit to cancel now, it gives you an option to be like, "Well, here are a couple of options for you. One, if you wanna keep everything still active, and still be able to use the software, we know things are tough," it's like, boom, "Here's a discount for you, you can get that discount." And so people could choose that option and continue to operate, or they can just choose the pause option, which means we'll stop actively doing anything in your account, we turn off all of the functionality, but we'll preserve your historical data, so that when you're ready to come back in, you can just press one button and turn it back on. So people get to choose themselves on the checkout and that's been helpful for sure. We're seeing a few people take us up on that option.33:02 Aaron: And I don't know if any of my CS team ever listens to this podcast, but I do wanna give them a shoutout. They have been doing an amazing job of taking care of GatherUp customers, and helping, and that's not easy right now for them either, right? Instead of solving technical issues, or usability issues, and things like that, you're talking to people who, they're fearful, they're losing their business, they're in a panic situation. And you're trying to calm them, do your job, and keep the business that you're running maintainable. So, really, a commendable job, a very tricky spot for them in their role right now for sure, and I super appreciate it. They have handled the lion share. I've handled 2% of the conversations that they've handled and they're killing it.33:05 Darren: I can attest to that. As a customer, we had... One of our large customers and reputation builder looked to cancel, and so that conversation happened with us and your GatherUp customer support team, and, man, they're awesome. They did an awesome job, really helpful, many ideas. And the real thing that comes across is that, what can we do to help? You can just really feel it. They're just... It's not about trying to save the money from the account, it's about, "Okay, well, what can we do to help here," and just really being helpful. And you feel it and it feels good. Yeah, I think they're doing an awesome job.34:29 Aaron: That's good. I think we have a lot of genuine care in our culture. I've always appreciated that about our team. So that's awesome to hear come through. Alright, lastly, let's end on something, I guess, a little more positive, some of the things that we're doing right now. What are you doing, Darren, as far as within marketing, within sales? I know you mentioned a couple of things right now, but how are you working this to find some success and get some new business inside of everything? 34:58 Darren: Yeah, for sure. We have a few initiatives that are about to launch. One is what we're calling... One of our big competitors that people look to us as an alternative is Yext. People have a subscription with Yext, they're paying for a monthly fee, or an annual fee, to just have their citation sitting in a database doing nothing, right? And so we have... We're about to launch what we call a Yext replacement service. And so, "If you're currently with Yext, here's how you could switch to us." And so it's exactly what you were talking about with the banks. We have a landing page specific for it, we have a custom package for it, and so that we're planning to launch next week actually. And so that's one of the big offensive moves that will keep our revenue on the citation team rolling. We actually haven't seen huge drops over there. A little bit, but not too bad. And so I think that this service... We actually are predicting some growth and we already have two potential new hires lined up in case we see some growth there from the launch of this service. Which would be great, it'll offset other areas of the business, right? So that's one of the big ones.36:08 Aaron: That's awesome.36:09 Darren: Yeah. Yext replacement service I think it's overdue. We've been thinking about it for a long time, and so we're pulling the trigger on that one and trying to get that up as soon as possible. Another huge one is, our biggest recurring software is our local citation finder. It's basically what we've built our business on. And that software honestly hasn't had a line of code added to it since probably 2015. We have not touched the thing, it's ridiculous. We've partly not touched it because it's been in this sort of complete overhaul redesign, re-development phase forever. We're actually shooting for a launch in 10 days. The 27th. April 27th, Monday April 27th, we're trying to finalize the final pieces of marketing, and polish, and we're pushing that out the door. And, oh my God, it's unbelievably better. And it's actually one of these weird pieces of software that over the period since this COVID thing happened, we haven't seen... I look at it on a daily basis and it's like, six new sign-ups, five cancellations. The next day will be like, seven new sign-ups, eight cancellations.37:27 Darren: And so it's holding fairly steady, and I feel like once we launch the new version of this, massive retention, because the software is just so much better. People are canceling not necessarily because of COVID, but they cancel because the software is like... It did the job for them, but it's pretty weak and it doesn't have a lot of reason to stay subscribed. The new version provides ongoing value in a way that's so much better than what the old version did, and it's a delight to use, it's fast, it feels great, it looks great, and just delivers so much more value. So I think we have the retention, but massive marketing push. There are so many people that are familiar with that software and have been using it for years, we have a huge opportunity to get our name out there and push the marketing for that. There's probably a hundred blog posts out there that reference the local citation finder. All the outreach to them, we can mention to them, "Hey, we got this new version. I've set you up with a free trial account, check it out." So I think we're gonna have a massive blast of additional marketing value, which of course will bring people to citation finder, but once they're there, they see all the other stuff we do too. So I think those two offensive moves are huge.38:43 Darren: And then on the Google My Business Management service, that's a great service that we're seeing fantastic growth, and I was really excited about where it was going. We've certainly seen it cut back, probably lost about 20 to 30 percent of our clients over there, but I did some talks in the fall for auto dealers where I crawled every Google My Business listing in all of Canada for auto dealers, and I broke it down. How many are using Google posts, how many are using... Have filled out the services fields, how many are using products? All these different features. And then I presented those stats, and then I talk about, "Well, wow, no one is doing this, it's a massive opportunity, here's how auto dealers can take advantage of that." And then, of course, I think that data which we're about to publish, for auto dealers, it's not a great time to be targeting auto dealers, but we're re-running that crawl for accountants, and lawyers, home services, all these businesses that are still continuing to operate, we're gonna re-run that with those marketing initiatives, so that we can get in front of those audiences and present our Google My Business Management service. 'Cause that management service is actually really reasonably priced.39:53 Darren: It's 349 a month. And so, for a lot of businesses that are cutting bigger expenses, it's one of those ones where they can come to us for a much lower cost. They're offsetting their cost, taking off that huge bill off their credit card, replacing it with this and still seeing great value in their marketing. So those are the things that we're looking at and cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to even potentially thrive over the coming months.40:19 Aaron: Yeah. No, that's great. And to some extent the same backbone of what we're trying to do. One, I've seen, you put out some tweets and sharing some visuals on the updated local citation finder. What a great way, build some excitement before it even happens.40:37 Darren: Yeah, a little bit of... Yeah.40:38 Aaron: Yeah. Love doing that stuff. Big believer in just doing your work out in the open or looking at your product as an aquarium and everybody can see in. I think those are great things. But I think the core of where you're getting is having things to talk about. If the only thing you have to talk about is, "We need sales," that's a boring conversation that nobody wants to listen to. Kinda like how you and I joked before this started. You made the statement that you have COVID blindness because every email that comes in says COVID on it. [chuckle]41:10 Darren: Oh my God. "A new message from our CEO." It's like, "Oh my God, I don't wanna hear what your CEO has to say about how, yes, you're still operational. I'm sure you are, 'cause everyone is, and thanks for the info."41:22 Aaron: Yeah. Yeah, no, totally. I'm with you on that. But, yeah, what we've looked at is the overall... Again, back to retention, is like, how do we help customers? One initiative that I launched is, I wrote out in a couple of hours, I created a spreadsheet and wrote down 120 blog topics. And then I took it to our team in our stand up and said, "Everybody pick at least two of these to write on in the next few minutes."41:47 Darren: That's impressive brainstorming, man.41:51 Aaron: [chuckle] I'm never short on ideas, only time to execute. So it brought it to everyone where usually it's like Mike and I blog and then we have a product and content marketer. She blogs a little bit, a lot more on feature releases. So we've gone from a once a week, once every two weeks post, to three posts a week for the last three weeks now. And it's been great.42:14 Darren: Yeah, smart.42:15 Aaron: And more social chatter, more things to come in, more things to talk about. And also, internally, I find... People already, it's great gratification for them to put work into it, put it together, and then have it published. And instead of sharing on their LinkedIn or their Facebook like, "Hey, here's what Aaron wrote, or here is our company blog," now it's like, "Here's what I wrote," right? And there's pride and accomplishment behind that. And so, I really feel like it's been a great movement. It's interesting, it's created a lot more work for me, 'cause I'm basically editing and finding really good visuals, and all that kind of stuff, but I love it. The post is at least half-written, if not more, by the time I'm able to get into it, so that's been a really big plus. And I'm always kind of a slogan or a catch-phrase guy. And so, internally, we've just really rallied around like, "Mentions are your best marketing and inbound is the best outbound right now." So, yeah. And going with those, content, then we have the... We're doing the local search Ask Me Anything webinar with you and Joy Hawkins on April 23rd. We already have a hundred and some registered for that. So I'm pumped about that. Traject has been great.43:30 Aaron: If you're a paid GatherUp customer, you can use our social product, Cyfe which is Reporting, or Authority Labs for free for 90 days. So we're offering access to other tools as well. So it's given us a lot to talk about, write about, be out there with, and, yeah, it's helped. It's like, our agency leads are down probably about 25-30% of volume of what they were, and then our multi-locations are really far down, that's the one that's below 10%. And they were just trying to, "Alright, what are the industries that are doing okay right now?" Certain areas of logistics, that's doing well. Grocery, pharmacy, things like that, they're doing well. So we're doing some light outbound with those, but much more we re-calibrated around... I just kinda put together a strategy of the the three Rs. And it's like, research and know the prospect super well. Reach out as a friend, a colleague, ask questions, how it's going for them, what are they seeing, things like that. And your goal is to build a relationship. So instead of trying to slam them into a demo, all you're trying to do is get a conversation going.44:43 Darren: Yeah, and try to solve their problem. What is the thing that they're struggling with, why are they even considering you, and then understanding what their challenges are and seeing if you can help them with that. That's all people want.44:56 Aaron: Yep, for sure. So we've just been hitting on that and we're starting to see progress. It's like, we're seeing the uptick in traffic to the blog, we're seeing more social chatter, we're seeing some of these other things. And these things are there a little slower. It's not gonna be next day success, but I really feel like if things cycle down another level, that's when this stuff is gonna kick in for us, and it's gonna keep us where we're at, and then at even kill, and we're also... We're not pissing people off by trying to shove sales and demo requests, and everything else, in their inbox, doing cold outreach at a time where nobody has mental bandwidth for that.45:36 Darren: And, man, I cannot believe the uptick in terrible cold outreach emails I've been getting in my inbox. And so, it's like, "Gosh, people are extra sensitive to it right now. Do not be taking that strategy, it will not pay off for you."45:51 Aaron: Yep. I don't even read my sales pitches right now. It's just...45:56 Darren: Forget it.45:57 Aaron: Yeah. Not even to see what they're saying. It's just such a hard delete, right? 46:01 Darren: Of course, yeah. It's the worst time to be pitching. If your company was built off of outbound, man, that was not a good move. Right now you need to be an inbound-based company.46:14 Aaron: Yeah, for sure. I agree. Alright. Well, I think we've ran a gamut of things, and I'm hopeful the next time we record it's not Groundhog's Day and we're talking the same things. [chuckle]46:25 Darren: Yeah. Well, it'll be interesting to talk again in a few weeks and see where we've landed. There may be some of these proactive moves. We'll see how they're paying off, and see where things are at.46:37 Aaron: For sure.46:38 Darren: Yeah.46:39 Aaron: Great to catch up, Darren. Glad things are going as well as they can for you guys. I'm excited to see the launch of the local citation finder, and I think you set it up perfectly, it sounds like it's gonna launch in about two weeks. [chuckle]46:54 Darren: You know what? It's even less. 10 days now.46:58 Aaron: Oh, I like this.46:58 Darren: Yeah. I've shortened my two weeks to 10 days.47:03 Aaron: See, we're always evolving and improving, that's what I like about talking to you.47:07 Darren: Yeah. Alright, cool, great talking to you Aaron.47:11 Aaron: Yeah, you too. Hey, everyone, wishing you guys are well in personal lives, emotionally, fighting for your business, all those other things. Many of you are so gracious. You reached out on Twitter, have sent encouraging emails on our episodes, and they're helpful and everything else. If you have anything going on in this time that this is sparked that you have a question on, or you wanna know how we're operating, or even wanna share some of yours, please feel free to reach out to Darren and I, we're really easy to get a hold of, either from our website or on Twitter. So go ahead and reach out to us, we'd love to cover any of that on our upcoming episodes.47:47 Darren: Yeah, even if you just wanna chat via DMs on Twitter, or something, and you've got some questions, happy to talk and see if there's anything I can do to help.47:57 Aaron: For sure. You're a good guy.47:58 Darren: Alright.48:00 Aaron: Alright. Take care, Darren, and we'll talk to you soon, and thanks everyone for listening.48:04 Darren: Thanks, everyone. Bye.[music]

Hey everyone, in today’s episode I share the mic with Chase Granberry, co-founder of Authority Labs, which allows you to track rankings on Google and Bing. Listen as Chase discusses how he built the company by hustling and being the best in the SEO software space, the value of zeroing in on one thing when it comes to growing a company, why it's so important to track rankings, how he struggled to scale the technical side of the business when he knew nothing, and how positive thinking and reading voraciously are two key factors that have contributed to his own success. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave Some Feedback: What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed  Connect With Eric Siu: Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @ericosiu

Ashley Ward is a corporate speaker for SEMRush. Her passion is focused on helping businesses and marketing professionals gain long term ROI through teaching content marketing and social media marketing tips and tricks. With over 7 years of experience in the digital marketing industry, journalism, and PR, Ashley brings firsthand experience to inspire marketers around the world using unique content marketing and social media marketing tactics.  Speaking both internationally and throughout the US, Ashley regularly teaches workshops and speaks at conferences like Brighton SEO, SearchLove, Digital Summits, Retail Global, and SMS Sydney. Ashley has co-authored the best-selling book, The Better Business Book v2 and is a contributing writer to industry blogs such as Search Engine Journal and Authority Labs.  88% of marketers integrate content into their marketing strategies, but only 57% of those marketers struggle to measure their content marketing strategy. In this expert session, Ashley explains why it's important to measure your content, the metrics you should use to measure, the costs of content, and the return from content marketing.  Links: Original Video Presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVtIwHUTXRs&t=19s SEMRush's Website: https://www.semrush.com/ 

In Episode #359, Eric and Neil discuss 5 tools that'll help you track your search engine rankings. Tune in to know the benefits of SEO tracking, why it's good to see how your competitors are doing and how tracking can help you see what you need to tweak with your SEO. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today's topic: 5 Tools That'll Help You Track Your Search Engine Rankings 00:36 – Search engine rankings are important if SEO rankings are important to you 00:46 – First is Google Search Console 00:58 – It's not the best, but it's a good starting point 01:04 – Second tool is Ahrefs 01:18 – You can compare your performance and your competitors' performance as well 01:29 – Third is Authority Labs 01:38 – It is geared towards ranking 01:47 – You can see if your SEO efforts are paying off 02:01 – A Now Provided report shows you keyword opportunities 02:05 – Fourth is SerpBook which tracks your ranking accurately 02:31 – Fifth tool is SEMrush 02:41 – It is growing and updating quite fast 03:15 – Marketing School is giving away a free 1 year subscription to Olark which is a live chat software tool 03:22 – Subscribe, rate and review Marketing School 03:26 – Text MARKETINGSCHOOL to 33444 for those in the US 03:32 – That's it for today's episode! 3 Key Points: Track your search engine ranking, especially if your SEO ranking is important to you. Consistently checking your ranking will help you see if your campaigns and efforts are working. If you track your competitor's rankings as well, you will have an idea of how you can improve and revamp your strategies. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In Episode #359, Eric and Neil discuss 5 tools that’ll help you track your search engine rankings. Tune in to know the benefits of SEO tracking, why it’s good to see how your competitors are doing and how tracking can help you see what you need to tweak with your SEO. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: 5 Tools That'll Help You Track Your Search Engine Rankings 00:36 – Search engine rankings are important if SEO rankings are important to you 00:46 – First is Google Search Console 00:58 – It’s not the best, but it’s a good starting point 01:04 – Second tool is Ahrefs 01:18 – You can compare your performance and your competitors’ performance as well 01:29 – Third is Authority Labs 01:38 – It is geared towards ranking 01:47 – You can see if your SEO efforts are paying off 02:01 – A Now Provided report shows you keyword opportunities 02:05 – Fourth is SerpBook which tracks your ranking accurately 02:31 – Fifth tool is SEMrush 02:41 – It is growing and updating quite fast 03:15 – Marketing School is giving away a free 1 year subscription to Olark which is a live chat software tool 03:22 – Subscribe, rate and review Marketing School 03:26 – Text MARKETINGSCHOOL to 33444 for those in the US 03:32 – That’s it for today’s episode! 3 Key Points: Track your search engine ranking, especially if your SEO ranking is important to you. Consistently checking your ranking will help you see if your campaigns and efforts are working. If you track your competitor’s rankings as well, you will have an idea of how you can improve and revamp your strategies. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In Episode #322, Eric and Neil discuss how you will know if your SEO efforts are paying off. Tune in to learn the tools that you can use to track your ranking and why it pays to be patient with SEO. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How Do You Know If Your SEO Efforts Are Paying Off? 00:39 – Eric uses a rank tracker called Authority Labs 00:49 – It has a section for organic traffic called “Now Provide” 01:10 – You want to know if your keyword traffic is increasing or decreasing 01:33 – Google Search Console will show you how many impressions your listings are getting 01:49 – Impressions are the number of people seeing your listings, but are not clicking on them 02:06 – Your impression time should go up eventually 02:45 – You have to stay patient with SEO 03:29 – Google Analytics is also an option for you to use 03:45 – That’s it for today’s episode! 3 Key Points: SEO takes time to see the results; be patient and you will see the outcomes. Tracking your keyword effectiveness and traffic will inform you on which words work and which need tweaking. Before your click rate goes up, your impressions should go up first. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In Episode #322, Eric and Neil discuss how you will know if your SEO efforts are paying off. Tune in to learn the tools that you can use to track your ranking and why it pays to be patient with SEO. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today's topic: How Do You Know If Your SEO Efforts Are Paying Off? 00:39 – Eric uses a rank tracker called Authority Labs 00:49 – It has a section for organic traffic called “Now Provide” 01:10 – You want to know if your keyword traffic is increasing or decreasing 01:33 – Google Search Console will show you how many impressions your listings are getting 01:49 – Impressions are the number of people seeing your listings, but are not clicking on them 02:06 – Your impression time should go up eventually 02:45 – You have to stay patient with SEO 03:29 – Google Analytics is also an option for you to use 03:45 – That's it for today's episode! 3 Key Points: SEO takes time to see the results; be patient and you will see the outcomes. Tracking your keyword effectiveness and traffic will inform you on which words work and which need tweaking. Before your click rate goes up, your impressions should go up first. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In Episode #260, Eric and Neil discuss the 7 SEO tasks you can start automating today. They drop tried and true tools that will help you automate SEO tasks—eliminating the risk for human error and streamlining your workflow processes. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today's topic: 7 SEO Tasks You Can Start Automating Today 00:33 – First is to use Ahrefs for link alerts 00:47 – It shows the new links that have been acquired by your competitors 00:56 – The link alerts can be sent to you 01:15 – Eric shares an example of how to link build depending on your niche 01:36 – Buzzsumo is a tool that can be used for link building, too 01:43 – Second is to use IFTTT: If This Then That to automate social sharing 02:00 – You can also time it 02:15 – Zapier is quite similar to IFTTT 02:22 – You can hook your blog RSS feed to your Slack 02:47 – SEO is like Formula 1 racing where fine tuning is essential 03:03 – One of the best WordPress plugs is in Yoast 03:17 – If you have WordPress multi-channel, Yoast automatically generates the site maps for each domain 03:42 – You can also use Zapier to hook in your RSS feed to your spreadsheet 04:07 – Your content writers can internally link to the links that you have 04:45 – Sixth is to sign-up for an SEO product like MOZ and OnPage 05:01 – It will automatically notify you when something is off with your SEO 05:28 – Track your keywords using Authority Labs 06:18 – Go to Google Analytics and set up alerts there 06:39 – That's it for today's episode! 3 Key Points: Automating SEO tasks eliminates room for human error. SEO requires fine tuning and consistent tweaks. Tracking your keywords will help you improve your ranking. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In Episode #260, Eric and Neil discuss the 7 SEO tasks you can start automating today. They drop tried and true tools that will help you automate SEO tasks—eliminating the risk for human error and streamlining your workflow processes. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: 7 SEO Tasks You Can Start Automating Today 00:33 – First is to use Ahrefs for link alerts 00:47 – It shows the new links that have been acquired by your competitors 00:56 – The link alerts can be sent to you 01:15 – Eric shares an example of how to link build depending on your niche 01:36 – Buzzsumo is a tool that can be used for link building, too 01:43 – Second is to use IFTTT: If This Then That to automate social sharing 02:00 – You can also time it 02:15 – Zapier is quite similar to IFTTT 02:22 – You can hook your blog RSS feed to your Slack 02:47 – SEO is like Formula 1 racing where fine tuning is essential 03:03 – One of the best WordPress plugs is in Yoast 03:17 – If you have WordPress multi-channel, Yoast automatically generates the site maps for each domain 03:42 – You can also use Zapier to hook in your RSS feed to your spreadsheet 04:07 – Your content writers can internally link to the links that you have 04:45 – Sixth is to sign-up for an SEO product like MOZ and OnPage 05:01 – It will automatically notify you when something is off with your SEO 05:28 – Track your keywords using Authority Labs 06:18 – Go to Google Analytics and set up alerts there 06:39 – That’s it for today’s episode! 3 Key Points: Automating SEO tasks eliminates room for human error. SEO requires fine tuning and consistent tweaks. Tracking your keywords will help you improve your ranking. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In Episode #235, Eric and Neil talk about how to launch an info product—what you should consider prior to launch, and the key metrics you should use to measure success.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today's topic: How to Launch Your Info Product 00:40 – “There's a launch sequence that comes with an info product” 00:56 – One type of launch is a “Cart Closing” 01:20 – Second is the “evergreen launch” 01:23 – Jeff Walker's product launch formula 02:22 – “If you're launching a product, it's not about the copy. It's more about the sequence” 02:55 – Think about your traffic first before launching a product 03:04 – Start with Facebook, Outbrain or Taboola and Google AdWords 03:36 – Doing joint-ventures is also an option 03:50 – A list rental works sometimes 04:15 – Go to GoToWebinar if you want to do a live event, EverWebinar for evergreen webinars 04:27 – For online courses, use Kajabi 04:40 – Infusionsoft is also an option 04:55 – Frank Kern has a sequence of important emails 05:10 – Map out a list of your most important emails 05:28 – Frank Kern sends the same email repeatedly with different headlines and it works! 05:54 – Don't worry about your first launch being perfect – just launch it and check the conversion 06:13 – The key metrics you need to measure 06:25 – Subscribe, rate and review and get a chance to win a free copy of Authority Labs 06:36 – Text MARKETINGSCHOOL to 33444 06:44 – That's it for today's episode! 3 Key Points: When it comes to launching an info product, don't worry about the copy, worry about the sequence. Utilize specialty online tools like Go-to-Webinar or Kajabi for an easier launch. Launch your product before it's “perfect” and measure the key metrics—they'll help you identify where to improve. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In Episode #235, Eric and Neil talk about how to launch an info product—what you should consider prior to launch, and the key metrics you should use to measure success.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Launch Your Info Product 00:40 – “There’s a launch sequence that comes with an info product” 00:56 – One type of launch is a “Cart Closing” 01:20 – Second is the “evergreen launch” 01:23 – Jeff Walker’s product launch formula 02:22 – “If you’re launching a product, it’s not about the copy. It’s more about the sequence” 02:55 – Think about your traffic first before launching a product 03:04 – Start with Facebook, Outbrain or Taboola and Google AdWords 03:36 – Doing joint-ventures is also an option 03:50 – A list rental works sometimes 04:15 – Go to GoToWebinar if you want to do a live event, EverWebinar for evergreen webinars 04:27 – For online courses, use Kajabi 04:40 – Infusionsoft is also an option 04:55 – Frank Kern has a sequence of important emails 05:10 – Map out a list of your most important emails 05:28 – Frank Kern sends the same email repeatedly with different headlines and it works! 05:54 – Don’t worry about your first launch being perfect – just launch it and check the conversion 06:13 – The key metrics you need to measure 06:25 – Subscribe, rate and review and get a chance to win a free copy of Authority Labs 06:36 – Text MARKETINGSCHOOL to 33444 06:44 – That’s it for today’s episode! 3 Key Points: When it comes to launching an info product, don’t worry about the copy, worry about the sequence. Utilize specialty online tools like Go-to-Webinar or Kajabi for an easier launch. Launch your product before it’s “perfect” and measure the key metrics—they’ll help you identify where to improve. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In Episode #234, Eric and Neil define what an info product is and discuss how can you create one for your business. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today's topic: What Is Info Product and How Can You Create One? 00:33 – Eric describes what an info product is 00:57 – He learned about info products during his internship 01:17 – There are nuances around info product 01:25 – You can do 5 to 6-figure launches with info products if done well 01:44 – With info product, you're going to have HUGE refund rates unless your product does what it says it will do 01:59 – Your product must solve your audiences' pain points 02:06 – Conduct customer surveys and keep refining your product 02:16 – Lean on word-of mouth marketing and keep people happy with your product 02:27 – Eric describes how to create an info product 02:30 – Repeat or repurpose your content to make it into an info product 02:51 – You can use Quicktime or Powerpoint to stream your content 03:00 – Get an idea from Udemy and Skillshare about offering a course 03:17 – Make your info product concise and organized 03:42 – Focus on one area and avoid overwhelming your audience 03:46 – Offer your content in different formats 04:11 – Create an info product with accountability 04:38 – It might seem easy to create a focused info product but it takes time 04:51 – Take a look at info products offered by Neil Patel, Brian Dean and Frank Kern 05:26 – Subscribe, rate and review and get a chance to win a free copy of Authority Labs 05:34 – Text MARKETINGSCHOOL to 33444 05:42 – That's it for today's episode! 3 Key Points: If you do your info product well, you WILL make money. Create an info product that meets a need—give the people what they want, not what you THINK they want. A good info product takes time, patience, and a lot of improvements. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In Episode #234, Eric and Neil define what an info product is and discuss how can you create one for your business. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: What Is Info Product and How Can You Create One? 00:33 – Eric describes what an info product is 00:57 – He learned about info products during his internship 01:17 – There are nuances around info product 01:25 – You can do 5 to 6-figure launches with info products if done well 01:44 – With info product, you’re going to have HUGE refund rates unless your product does what it says it will do 01:59 – Your product must solve your audiences’ pain points 02:06 – Conduct customer surveys and keep refining your product 02:16 – Lean on word-of mouth marketing and keep people happy with your product 02:27 – Eric describes how to create an info product 02:30 – Repeat or repurpose your content to make it into an info product 02:51 – You can use Quicktime or Powerpoint to stream your content 03:00 – Get an idea from Udemy and Skillshare about offering a course 03:17 – Make your info product concise and organized 03:42 – Focus on one area and avoid overwhelming your audience 03:46 – Offer your content in different formats 04:11 – Create an info product with accountability 04:38 – It might seem easy to create a focused info product but it takes time 04:51 – Take a look at info products offered by Neil Patel, Brian Dean and Frank Kern 05:26 – Subscribe, rate and review and get a chance to win a free copy of Authority Labs 05:34 – Text MARKETINGSCHOOL to 33444 05:42 – That’s it for today’s episode! 3 Key Points: If you do your info product well, you WILL make money. Create an info product that meets a need—give the people what they want, not what you THINK they want. A good info product takes time, patience, and a lot of improvements. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In Episode #233, Eric and Neil discuss whether or not you should use Outbrain or Taboola. Tune in to learn whether or not Outbrain or Taboola are still truly relevant in today's environment, and why some people still swear by them.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today's topic: Should You Be Using Outbrain or Taboola? 00:33 – Outbrain and Taboola can promote your content in content delivery network 00:58 – Outbrain and Taboola are viable sources of traffic 01:56 – If you can make cash flow positive with advertising channels, then do them all 02:10 – These days, Outbrain and Taboola cater to ad impression companies 02:30 – Some of the Outbrain and Taboola ads are scammy and spammy 03:22 – Eric shares what he tends to observe from these ads 03:45 – Use Adbeat to see your competitors' ad 04:10 – Subscribe, rate and review and get a chance to win a free copy of Authority Labs 04:20 – Text MARKETINGSCHOOL to 33444 04:33 – That's it for today's episode! 3 Key Points: Outbrain and Taboola still work for the right businesses. Not all ads can do good things for you brand—ads can help or hinder. If an advertising channel is cash-flow positive, use it. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In Episode #233, Eric and Neil discuss whether or not you should use Outbrain or Taboola. Tune in to learn whether or not Outbrain or Taboola are still truly relevant in today’s environment, and why some people still swear by them.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: Should You Be Using Outbrain or Taboola? 00:33 – Outbrain and Taboola can promote your content in content delivery network 00:58 – Outbrain and Taboola are viable sources of traffic 01:56 – If you can make cash flow positive with advertising channels, then do them all 02:10 – These days, Outbrain and Taboola cater to ad impression companies 02:30 – Some of the Outbrain and Taboola ads are scammy and spammy 03:22 – Eric shares what he tends to observe from these ads 03:45 – Use Adbeat to see your competitors' ad 04:10 – Subscribe, rate and review and get a chance to win a free copy of Authority Labs 04:20 – Text MARKETINGSCHOOL to 33444 04:33 – That’s it for today’s episode! 3 Key Points: Outbrain and Taboola still work for the right businesses. Not all ads can do good things for you brand—ads can help or hinder. If an advertising channel is cash-flow positive, use it. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In Episode #232, Eric and Neil discuss how to get more blog comments. That interaction with your readers is an excellent way to build relationships, trust and loyalty. Tune in to learn the basics of interacting with your audience so that you can keep them coming back to your page. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today's topic: How to Get More Blog Comments 00:38 – Neil shares these tips 00:42 – Write in a conversational tone 00:44 – Use the words “you” and “I” 00:53 – Email out to your list 00:56 – Share your post on social web 01:16 – The more interactive you are in responding to your comments, the more they're going to come back and respond back to you 01:25 – Use plug-ins 01:59 – You can build loyalty with your audience 02:21 – Hire or get someone to respond for you if you're too busy to do it 02:30 – Eric shares a page that shut down blog commenting on their posts 02:49 – If your blog is a controversial one, it's good to remove the comments 03:03 - Subscribe, rate and review and get a chance to win a free copy of Authority Labs 03:15 – Text MARKETINGSCHOOL to 33444 00:00 – That's it for today's episode! 3 Key Points: Blog commenting is one way to add a personal touch to your blog or business. Use a conversational tone in your interactions. Sometimes, turning off blog commenting sections is for the best, especially when it comes to controversial topics. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In Episode #232, Eric and Neil discuss how to get more blog comments. That interaction with your readers is an excellent way to build relationships, trust and loyalty. Tune in to learn the basics of interacting with your audience so that you can keep them coming back to your page. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Get More Blog Comments 00:38 – Neil shares these tips 00:42 – Write in a conversational tone 00:44 – Use the words “you” and “I” 00:53 – Email out to your list 00:56 – Share your post on social web 01:16 – The more interactive you are in responding to your comments, the more they’re going to come back and respond back to you 01:25 – Use plug-ins 01:59 – You can build loyalty with your audience 02:21 – Hire or get someone to respond for you if you’re too busy to do it 02:30 – Eric shares a page that shut down blog commenting on their posts 02:49 – If your blog is a controversial one, it’s good to remove the comments 03:03 - Subscribe, rate and review and get a chance to win a free copy of Authority Labs 03:15 – Text MARKETINGSCHOOL to 33444 00:00 – That’s it for today’s episode! 3 Key Points: Blog commenting is one way to add a personal touch to your blog or business. Use a conversational tone in your interactions. Sometimes, turning off blog commenting sections is for the best, especially when it comes to controversial topics. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In Episode #231, Eric and Neil discuss whether it's a good time to start a podcast. Tune in to learn if the best time to plunge into podcasting is now and the ways that will help you be successful in this channel. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today's topic: Is it a Good Time to Start a Podcast? 00:33 – Yes, because now is an inflection point for podcasts 01:01 – Podcasting has helped Eric's business grow 01:22 – If the channel is popular, you should go after it 02:06 – Russell Brunson mentions that podcasting is the best thing that has happened to his business 02:14 – Podcasting takes time 03:18 – Some are also hitting millions of downloads a month 03:38 – Look for the unsolicited response rate 04:10 – If you're going to enter a new market, make sure you know how to attack it 05:00 – Also think of a channel where you can market 05:13 - Subscribe, rate and review and get a chance to win a free copy of Authority Labs 05:26 – Text MARKETINGSCHOOL to 33444 00:00 – That's it for today's episode! 3 Key Points: If you're thinking about starting a podcast, you should—now is an inflection point for podcasting. If you enter a new market, make sure you learn how to attack it. Find a market that can help you leverage your podcast. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In Episode #231, Eric and Neil discuss whether it's a good time to start a podcast. Tune in to learn if the best time to plunge into podcasting is now and the ways that will help you be successful in this channel. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: Is it a Good Time to Start a Podcast? 00:33 – Yes, because now is an inflection point for podcasts 01:01 – Podcasting has helped Eric’s business grow 01:22 – If the channel is popular, you should go after it 02:06 – Russell Brunson mentions that podcasting is the best thing that has happened to his business 02:14 – Podcasting takes time 03:18 – Some are also hitting millions of downloads a month 03:38 – Look for the unsolicited response rate 04:10 – If you’re going to enter a new market, make sure you know how to attack it 05:00 – Also think of a channel where you can market 05:13 - Subscribe, rate and review and get a chance to win a free copy of Authority Labs 05:26 – Text MARKETINGSCHOOL to 33444 00:00 – That’s it for today’s episode! 3 Key Points: If you’re thinking about starting a podcast, you should—now is an inflection point for podcasting. If you enter a new market, make sure you learn how to attack it. Find a market that can help you leverage your podcast. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In Episode #230, Eric and Neil discuss the 7 ways you can add link building to your daily routine. Take note of how you can incorporate simple strategies into your daily routine to build your links such as emailing people you’ve linked out to in the past or having a daily, SEO tracking system in place. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: 7 Ways You Can Add Link Building to Your Daily Routine 00:38 – First is to have a process in place 01:29 – Go to your old blog posts and email 10 people a day that you’ve linked out to 02:08 – Create link alerts for your competitor 02:17 – Use Ahrefs to get access and create link alerts 02:52 – It’s become more targeted 02:59 – The more people who know about you and your company, the more links you get 03:05 – One simple way to get links is to have an interview or podcast 03:57 – Interview Valet can guarantee you a number of interviews a month 04:13 – Fifth is to see the links that tend to rank well 04:19 – Use Google Search Console 04:25 – Authority Labs can track your ranking 04:41 – Eric Enge of Stone Temple Consulting did a study on this 04:54 – Link building is about time 05:04 – Search for “broken link checker” 05:40 – Link roundup link building 05:45 – You have to create good content 06:28 – Subscribe, rate and review and get a chance to win a free copy of Authority Labs 06:39 – Text marketingschool to 33444 06:48 – That’s it for today’s episode! 3 Key Points: Having a process for everything can make life easier for you – including hiring. Make you and your company known in your niche – the bigger your reach, the more links you get. Link building is about time – the longer it is out there, the more links you will have. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In Episode #230, Eric and Neil discuss the 7 ways you can add link building to your daily routine. Take note of how you can incorporate simple strategies into your daily routine to build your links such as emailing people you've linked out to in the past or having a daily, SEO tracking system in place. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today's topic: 7 Ways You Can Add Link Building to Your Daily Routine 00:38 – First is to have a process in place 01:29 – Go to your old blog posts and email 10 people a day that you've linked out to 02:08 – Create link alerts for your competitor 02:17 – Use Ahrefs to get access and create link alerts 02:52 – It's become more targeted 02:59 – The more people who know about you and your company, the more links you get 03:05 – One simple way to get links is to have an interview or podcast 03:57 – Interview Valet can guarantee you a number of interviews a month 04:13 – Fifth is to see the links that tend to rank well 04:19 – Use Google Search Console 04:25 – Authority Labs can track your ranking 04:41 – Eric Enge of Stone Temple Consulting did a study on this 04:54 – Link building is about time 05:04 – Search for “broken link checker” 05:40 – Link roundup link building 05:45 – You have to create good content 06:28 – Subscribe, rate and review and get a chance to win a free copy of Authority Labs 06:39 – Text marketingschool to 33444 06:48 – That's it for today's episode! 3 Key Points: Having a process for everything can make life easier for you – including hiring. Make you and your company known in your niche – the bigger your reach, the more links you get. Link building is about time – the longer it is out there, the more links you will have. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In Episode #229, Eric and Neil discuss how to build more traffic when you already rank for your head terms. Tune in to learn as Eric and Neil provide a step-by-step guide to see how you're ranking on specific pages and also share with you their weekly giveaway. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today's topic: How to Build More Traffic When You Already Rank for All Your Head Terms 00:37 – Eric explains what a head term is and how you can rank for long tail variations 00:56 – Go to Google Suggest and type the head terms you rank for 01:11 – Neil tries the head term “online marketing” on Google 01:25 – Take the terms related to your head terms and make corresponding content, if relevant 01:45 – Type your head term and look for other variations of it 02:14 – The hub and spoke model 02:17 – Hub and spoke by Jimmy Daly 02:25 – Conversion rate optimization 02:54 – Skyscrape content that is already there which is connected to your head term 03:03 – Use Google Search Console and look for the keywords that help you rank 03:13 – Go to search analytics, click on the top 3 checkmarks on the top left corner and then switch to pages—go to “search by impression” from top to bottom 03:32 – Look at the keywords that you're ranking for in specific pages 04:04 – Eric and Neil are giving out one free tool per week 04:15 – This week's free tool is a free copy of Authority Labs, a keyword tracking tool 04:28 – What you have to do is text marketingschool to 33444 and the winner will be confirmed weekly 04:40 – That's it for today's episode! 3 Key Points: Link to subcategories under your main category—Google likes that. Sky scrape content that is already out there which is connected to your head terms. Terms that are related to your head terms can be used to create new content. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

In Episode #229, Eric and Neil discuss how to build more traffic when you already rank for your head terms. Tune in to learn as Eric and Neil provide a step-by-step guide to see how you’re ranking on specific pages and also share with you their weekly giveaway. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Build More Traffic When You Already Rank for All Your Head Terms 00:37 – Eric explains what a head term is and how you can rank for long tail variations 00:56 – Go to Google Suggest and type the head terms you rank for 01:11 – Neil tries the head term “online marketing” on Google 01:25 – Take the terms related to your head terms and make corresponding content, if relevant 01:45 – Type your head term and look for other variations of it 02:14 – The hub and spoke model 02:17 – Hub and spoke by Jimmy Daly 02:25 – Conversion rate optimization 02:54 – Skyscrape content that is already there which is connected to your head term 03:03 – Use Google Search Console and look for the keywords that help you rank 03:13 – Go to search analytics, click on the top 3 checkmarks on the top left corner and then switch to pages—go to “search by impression” from top to bottom 03:32 – Look at the keywords that you’re ranking for in specific pages 04:04 – Eric and Neil are giving out one free tool per week 04:15 – This week’s free tool is a free copy of Authority Labs, a keyword tracking tool 04:28 – What you have to do is text marketingschool to 33444 and the winner will be confirmed weekly 04:40 – That’s it for today’s episode! 3 Key Points: Link to subcategories under your main category—Google likes that. Sky scrape content that is already out there which is connected to your head terms. Terms that are related to your head terms can be used to create new content. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu

Today’s episode is a #TwitterSmarter first as we are bringing in a duo on the show. Let’s welcome Alan K’necht and Michelle Stinson-Ross, hosts of the wildly popular #SocialChat, happening every Monday at 9pm ET. Alan is the VP of Social Analytics at digital marketing company, Digital Always Media. With 20+ years experience in the digital marketing and internet space, Alan is also an author, consultant, and public speaker. Michelle is the Content and Outreach Goddess at Authority Labs. She has been a consultant, social media strategist, and digital marketing strategist for the last 6 years. She calls herself an omni-channel social maniac who has tried and tested everything that’s out there. #SocialChat sprung out of an idea Alan and Michelle got from the #SEOChat. Before they knew it, they were joined by 30-50 people per chat and now with over 200 episodes and counting. Listen in to get massive Twitter insights from this dynamic #SocialChat duo. Episode Highlights: Alan says, Think and Plan. Do your research. Know where your audience is and how they interact on the social platform. Form your plan then do your attack. Michele says, Humanize your brand. Engage in conversation. #SocialChat is 4 years old. It’s geared for social media marketers to discuss best practices. It’s grown and blossomed. It also attracts small business owners as well as college students who participate as a class requirement. A Twitter chat is like a conversation at a cocktail party. Don’t just jump in and say something. You have to listen first and then at the right time, pipe in if you’ve got something to add into the conversation. Check out the Noobs Guide to #SocialChat which lays out some good forum rules of engagement when participating in #SocialChat to make sure that guests and participants are able to leverage on the networking. Give love to the people you’re interacting with and mention one another. Tweetables: “A Twitter chat is being in a conversation at a cocktail party.” – @Aknecht “Think and Plan. Do your research. Know where your audience is. And how they interact on that social platform.” – @Aknecht “Humanize your brand. Engage in conversation.” – @SocialMichelleR Links to tools and resources mentioned in this episode: www.socialchatnetwork.com #TwitterSmarter chat Noobs Guide to #SocialChat tchat.io – Great Twitter chat platform TweetChat.com – Twitter chat platform Nurph – Twitter chat platform Tweetdeck – real-time tracking, organizing and engagement Hashtracking.com – hashtag tracker and transcription How To Reach Alan & Michelle: If you’d like to connect with them on Twitter, Alan is at @Aknecht and Michelle is at @SocialMichelleR. You may also find Alan K’necht on Facebook and LinkedIn. You can connect with Michelle Stinson Ross on Facebook and LinkedIn. Or simply use #SocialChat on Twitter and they’ll find you! Your Homework: Your homework for this episode is to check out their weekly Twitter chat. Just go to #SocialChat on Mondays at 9pm ET. Be sure to let me know what you think. Send me a tweet @MadalynSklar. Share The Love For This Podcast: Want an easy “one-click” way to Share The Love for this podcast? Go here: www.madalynsklar.com/love to tweet out your love. Thanks for the listen! I appreciate you listening to this podcast, and would be extremely grateful if you would take a moment to rate & review it on iTunes. By doing this, my rankings will increase and more people will be able to benefit from the tips and tools shared in this #TwitterSmarter podcast series. Please also subscribe to this podcast while you’re there. It will ensure you don’t miss an episode! I read every review that comes in, so please know that you have my sincere thanks!

In this episode Dan Kaplan, CoFounder of periscopeUP interviews Chase Granberry, Founder and CEO of Authority Labs. They discuss how to use Authority Lab’s new Now Provided Report] to get back some of that keyword data that Google Analytics is hiding. Chase Granberry founded Authority Labs to be easy and simple enough for the average business owner, but scalable enough for those responsible for large organic search efforts. AuthorityLabs helps you gain an understanding of how search engines are displaying your brand over time. View the full video interview at www.periscopeUP.com/blog/podcast-chase-granberry Like This Content? We’ve got more great practical advice, tips, and examples of how to get more leads and sales from your website… Podcast episodes: www.periscopeUP.com/podcast eMail Newsletter: www.periscopeUP.com/signup Courses, eBooks & Presentations:  www.periscopeUP.com/learn Services: www.periscopeup.com/services Twitter: https://twitter.com/periscopeup Google+: http://plus.google.com/+periscopeUP