Podcast appearances and mentions of kent lewis

Kent Lewis grew up in the Seattle area. In college he studied business and marketing. After college he went to work for a PR agency but left to go into the digital marketing industry in 1996. Kent has formed several marketing agencies during his career. He is quite up front about challenges he faced along the way as well as what he learned from each issue he faced.   Kent's philosophy about community is quite interesting and well worth adopting. He believes very much in giving back to his community. Today his day job is serving as “Executive Director of NextNW, a non-profit trade association that unifies the Pacific Northwest advertising & marketing professionals interested in professional development, sharing best practices, and collaborative problem-solving”.   Kent gives us many relevant and timely business insights. I hope you agree that this conversation gives us some good business lessons we all can use.     About the Guest:   Kent Lewis, Executive Director, NextNW Lewis is currently Executive Director of NextNW, a non-profit trade association that unifies the Pacific Northwest advertising & marketing professionals interested in professional development, sharing best practices, and collaborative problem-solving. He is also Founder of pdxMindShare, Portland's premier career community, with over 12,000 LinkedIn Group members. With a background in integrated marketing, he left a public relations agency in 1996 to start his career in digital marketing. Since then, he's helped grow businesses by connecting his clients with their constituents online. In 2000, Lewis founded Anvil Media, Inc., a measurable marketing agency specializing in search engine and social media marketing. Under his leadership, Anvil has received recognition from Portland Business Journal and Inc. Magazine as a Fastest Growing and Most Philanthropic Company.  After selling his agency in March 2022, he became a CMO for the acquiring firm. Beyond co-founding SEMpdx, Lewis co-founded two agencies, emailROI (now Thesis) and Formic Media. As a long-time entrepreneur, he's advised or invested in a host of companies, including PacificWRO, Maury's Hive Tea and ToneTip. Lewis speaks regularly at industry events and has been published in books and publications including Business2Community, Portland Business Journal, and SmartBrief. For twenty years, he was an adjunct professor at Portland State University, and has been a volunteer instructor for SCORE Portland since 2015. Lewis tours nationwide, averaging 30 speaking engagements annually, including a regular presenter role with the Digital Summit conference series. Active in his community, Lewis has been involved in non-profit charity and professional trade organizations including early literacy program SMART Reading and The Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO).  Industry recognition and awards include Portland Business Journal's Top 40 Under 40 Award, American Marketing Association Oregon Chapter Marketer of the Year, and Top 100 Digital Marketing Influencers by BuzzSumo.   Ways to connect with Kent:   Links https://kentjlewis.com/   And LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kentlewis/     About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes:   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:20 Well, hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of unstoppable mindset. Today. We get to chat with an award winning entrepreneur, and he just told me a really interesting factoid. We'll have to, we'll have to talk about it, just because it is about one of the most fascinating things I've heard in quite a while, and a very positive thing. But I'm not going to give it away, because I'm going away, because I'm going to let him talk about it, or at least start the discussion. I'd like you all to meet Kent Lewis. Kent has been an entrepreneur for a while. He helps other entrepreneurs. He works in the non profit arena and does a variety of different kinds of things. And rather than me telling you all about it, you could read the bio, but more important, meet Kent Lewis and Kent, welcome to unstoppable mindset.   Kent Lewis ** 02:05 It's, it's a pleasure to be on the show. Thank you for having me, sir.   Michael Hingson ** 02:10 Now where are you located? I'm based in Portland, Oregon, yeah. So you're, you are up up the coast, since I'm in Southern California. So yes, you know, one of these days I'll be up that way again. Well, Alaska Airlines will fly me up there.   Kent Lewis ** 02:27 Yeah, totally right. Yeah, good   Michael Hingson ** 02:29 to have you, unless you come this way first. But anyway, well, I'm really want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. And why don't we start? I love to do this. Tell me a little bit about kind of the early Kent growing up and all that stuff.   Kent Lewis ** 02:44 Yeah, so I grew up in Seattle, Washington. I think something that's influenced me is that my dad was is, or is, a retired architect. And so there was always this design esthetic, and he was an art collector enthusiast, I should say. And so I was always surrounded with art and mid century, you know, furniture and there's just style was a it was a thing. And then my mom was always in when she was a social worker and went into running nonprofits. And so I grew up around that as well of just giving back. So if you ever heard that common term, you know, learn, earn, return. Start your life you're learning, then you're maximizing your earnings during your career, and then when you in and around later in life, you start giving back, right, returning, right. And I learned from my mom that you never stop you never stop learning. You never stop returning. And my my mantra as an entrepreneur is never stop earning right? So, so I've always been giving back and donating my time, and I've always appreciated sort of good design and well thought out things. And I think that's influenced my career in marketing and as an entrepreneur, business owner, and now more of an advisor, Coach type,   Michael Hingson ** 03:59 well, so growing up in Seattle, did you visit pikes market very often?   Kent Lewis ** 04:04 My dad used to work right, right, like, two blocks away. So I would go there all the time. In fact, I remember when there was just one Starbucks when I was a kid, yeah, at Pike Place Market, and they used to sell large chunks of delicious, bitter sweet chocolate, I know, you know, in the behind the counter, and it was a very hi and you could smell the teas and all that. It was a very different experience, very cool place. And so, yeah, love   Michael Hingson ** 04:33 the pipe waste market. I understand that they don't throw the fish anymore. No, they do. They do. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Maybe it was just during the pandemic that they decided not to do that, but   Kent Lewis ** 04:44 think you're right about that. But they definitely, they, they're still, it's still a major attraction. It's too big of a thing to stop.   Michael Hingson ** 04:51 Wow, that's what I was thinking. And that's just way too big of a thing to to stop. My probably not the greatest fish fish catcher, I've been there, but I. I never caught a fish.   Kent Lewis ** 05:02 Yeah, that's only got, like, one or two in my life. And I don't, I don't do it much, but   Michael Hingson ** 05:08 Well, well, that's the place to go anyway. So where did you go to college?   Kent Lewis ** 05:13 I went to Western Washington University in Bellingham, uh, just 1020 minutes from the Canadian border, because, in part, when I was in school, it was a 19 year old drinking age in Canada, so I was 20 minutes away from my earlier drinking age. Turns out, I grew up going to Vancouver, BC quite often for the soccer exchange program when I was a real young youngster. So I fell in love with Vancouver, and as I've had been fortunate enough to travel the world a bit, I realized that it was one of my favorite cities, and it still is. It is such a global, amazing egalitarian, like, no matter your color, race, creed, you could be a millionaire or you could be a bus driver. There was no not the same class, classism you see in other US cities or around the rest of the world. It's truly an amazing and it's also, of course, beautiful   Michael Hingson ** 06:04 there. I found that true throughout Canada, and I've enjoyed every Canadian city I've ever been to. One of my favorites is really going to Toronto. I was always impressed as to how clean it really was.   Kent Lewis ** 06:17 You know, that's true. I've been there a couple times in conferences, and I found it to be clean and impressive, you know, and then, but my, one of my favorite, other cities I only spent overnight, there was Montreal. What a beautiful, beautiful place, absolutely stunning. I   Michael Hingson ** 06:35 spent two days in Montreal once when I was selling some products and turn the TV on at 1131 morning that I was there and watched the Flintstones in French. That was unique. That was unique. Cool. How cool is that? Yeah, it's awesome. That was kind of fun. But, you know, so you, you went to college. What did you major in?   Kent Lewis ** 06:58 I majored in business with a marketing concentration, which is great because I ended up doing marketing for a career, and for 22 years ran my own agency, or my own business, basically.   Michael Hingson ** 07:10 So what did you do when you got out of college?   Kent Lewis ** 07:14 I went immediately into the world of public relations agency life. I always wanted to be a found out after college that I, what I really wanted to be was a copywriter, you know, writing ads. I just coolest thing as a kid. I just didn't know that. It's, I didn't realize what it, what it you have to go to Ad School. You can't, you can't graduate regular college and become a copier. At least you weren't able to when I was, you know, back in the mid 90s. So I started in PR because it sounded hard to pitch the media and try and get them to say what you want them to say about your brand, your client and your brand. And that did me well, because when I got in from went from PR in 94 to digital marketing, SEO, search engine optimization 96 my PR background was extremely helpful. You know, in in that, in that whole world. So because doing PR builds Domain Authority, which builds your rankings in Google, and the rest is history. So, so it was very helpful. It gave me a bit of an edge. And then my business background meant I was better equipped to to go from doing the work to managing people, they're doing the work, to doing my own thing, you know, and running a instant running team, I was running a business. So that was super cool. You   Michael Hingson ** 08:38 know, it's interesting. I've especially because of the World Trade Center, but not only, but before it as well, I learned a lot about dealing with the press. And I've, I've watched a lot of press interviews today, and it's, it's amazing how often and then people have said that this is the way you should do it. No matter what the press person asks you, you answer with the with the answer you really want to give, whether you answer their questions or not. And I think that's an interesting approach, and I suppose it can be positive, but especially for for politicians who don't want to answer the tough questions. But I I know that for me, I've always tried to structure my answers in such a way that it gets them to take the question that they originally asked that I might sort of answer and reframe it so that I will answer a lot of times that, for example, talking about blindness and blind people, there are just so many misconceptions about it and and all too often, like first time I was on Larry King lives, Larry was asking questions about guide dogs. And he said, Now, where did you get your guide dog? And I said, from San Rafael, California. He said, well, but the but the main. School is a new is in Michigan, right? And I said, No, it's a different organization. And what we learned after doing that interview was that the way to deal with Larry was to program him and send him questions in advance with answers. Then he did a lot better, because the reality is, he didn't really know necessarily the answers in the first place. It's just amazing how you know how a lot of times it's just shallower. The Press tends to over dramatize. But I appreciate what you're saying about marketing and PR, I've done so much of that over my lifetime, and for so many reasons, in so many ways, I know exactly what you're talking about.   Kent Lewis ** 10:47 Yeah, yeah. That's, yeah, it's, it's a fascinating world that I've, that I've, you know, been live, living and working in. And I, yeah, I'm impressed, yeah, Larry King Live. That's pretty cool. And, you know, hopefully you've helped people just side note, you know, get a clear understanding of what it is, what it is both like to be blind and then how you navigate this world successfully, as if you're, you know, fully sighted. You know,   Michael Hingson ** 11:18 well, one of the things that I actually learned over the last couple of years is something that I've actually written an article and had it published about, and that is that we've got to change our view of disabilities in general. People always say, well, disability is a lack of ability. And I say, and I always say, No, it's not. And they say, Well, yes, it is. It begins with dis. And I said, then, how do you equate that with disciple, discern and discrete? For example, you know they begin with D is the reality is, disability is not a lack of ability. You think it is. But I've added to that now when I point out that, in reality, every person on the planet has a disability, but for most people, their disability is covered up. Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb, or at least we give him credit for it back in 1878 so for the last 147 years, all we've done is spent so much time improving on the technology that provides light on demand, which just covers up your disability, but it's still there. And I realized that one day I was at a hotel in Los Angeles at three in the afternoon when we had a power failure, and everybody started to scream, even down in the lobby, when they had all these nice big windows that were letting in all sorts of light, but it wasn't giving them the light that they wanted and the amount that they wanted, and people panicked. So I realized then, oh, well, now the reality is they're light dependent, which is as much a disability as my light independence is. It's just that it manifests itself differently, and there are a whole lot more light dependent people than light independent people. But we've got to really change our definition and how we view it. So   Kent Lewis ** 12:58 that's really insightful. It's good to think about.   Michael Hingson ** 13:01 Yeah, it's kind of fun. But, you know, so, so where did you, where did you go off and go to work in the in the marketing world? So you did? You didn't go to Copyright School? Or did you? No, no,   Kent Lewis ** 13:13 I just know. I once I talked to the creative director at this agency in Seattle where I did my first internship. He's like, Yeah, you'd have to go back to art school. And I was like, what school I just finished? So, you know, it didn't really matter. And we So, with that said, we, you know, I moved into PR, and then I moved to down to Portland from Seattle, because I could actually get a paying job because the internship I did three months full time, virtually, basically no pay, I found a low paying job instead in Portland. So I moved I only knew one person here in Portland, my cousin. She's still here. We both have families now, and I know a lot more people, but I basically have, since moving here to do my second agency job. I've been, I've been a part of 10 agencies in my career. I've been, I founded two, co founded two, fired from three and exited the four that I created, or co, co founded, basically. And so right now I have a consultancy. I could say that's my 11th agency, but I don't even really count it as an agency. I'm just a fractional CMO, you know, marketing advisor at this point, just a few hours a month, because my my day job as of January, is running a nonprofit called next northwest.org which is a it's a trade organization for marketing and advertising and creative community, the creative services world. And it has 119 year history in Portland. And now it's, it's now expanded to five states and into Canada. And so I've got this I'm working. I manage a board of, you know, decent sized board, and a decent sized advisory. Committee that I created, and just the last couple months, and we do learning events for the creative community and networking events and celebrations, like, you know, awards, award shows to celebrate the work. So that's kind of my day job. And then I also speak and write a lot you and I share a passion for for education and learning and sharing knowledge. And so I've been, I've probably averaged 25 speaking engagements a year for the last 20 years, and last year was 30. For instance, I fly yours, mentioned your your travel. I'm flying to Tampa on Sunday to present on Monday, on a panel about AI in the senior care space, for instance. And then I come back and I, I, you know, got it. I got one or two more. But I, you know, I typically do a dozen fly flying gigs, and then I do a lot of webinars and local gigs as well.   Michael Hingson ** 15:55 So what are you what are you going to say? What are you going to say about AI in the senior care space?   Kent Lewis ** 16:01 That's a great question. So what my focus as a marketer is, here's how you can use AI to streamline and automate and maintain or improve quality. So it's not meant to it's not a secret hack, cheat code to lay people off. It's a It's get more out of your current resources, basically, and do more with less, and do it more effectively. That's kind of, that's, you know, that's my, what I'll be talking about is the how you know how to use it for research, ideation, content creation, content editing, reporting, synthesizing information, customer service, that kind of thing. So I only have, you know, it's a panel event, so I'm only doing like a 10 to 15 minutes part, and then there are other presenters doing their part, and then we have a little Q and A, usually, I'm a sole presenter on whatever topic, usually digital marketing or employee engagement, which is what I got passionate about. Once I sold my agency. After 22 years, I became an employee at that the agency that acquired my company, and I was immediately underwhelmed and disappointed in what it was like to be an employee, and wanted to fix it. So that's what I had been focusing on when I given a choice. I want to evangelize. You know, what I learned from my experience, and I've done a good amount of research, and, you know, two weeks ago, I presented in Portland on the topic to entrepreneurs. Then the next day, I flew to Denver and did the same presentation to a group of agency owners. And then the next day, I did a webinar for similar group of entrepreneurs, you know, so three versions, three days in a row, a 3060, and 90 minute version. So,   Michael Hingson ** 17:42 pretty fun. Yeah. So how many books have you written?   Kent Lewis ** 17:47 Ah, I knew you'd say that so or ask that. I have not written any books, but I have, darn but I've written, you know, probably 200 articles. I could easily AI them into some sort of book, if I wanted to. You know, I went from writing 80% to 90% of my art content was on digital marketing for the first 20 years. And then the last 10 years, I focused almost exclusively on writing about entrepreneurship and and business ownership, leadership and employee intention, retention, engagement. And, you know, so I mostly syndicate my articles, like business journals, occasionally in Ink Magazine, etc. So if I were to write a book, it would be about the business side of things, instead of the second, I would write something about digital marketing. Not only am I no longer an expert, and consider myself an expert relative to others, those books are outdated the second they're printed, right? So, so it doesn't make sense to really write a book on digital marketing, and everything's already been said, etc. So, so if I wrote a book, it would be probably more on the employee engagement side versus anything. But I will say that I don't know if you know who Seth Godin is. He's the number one marketing blogger in the world. He's written many best sellers, Purple Cow, permission, marketing, etc. He's remarkable guy. And I had was fortunate to talk with him and then meet with him over lunch in New York City 15 years ago. And he said, after our two hour lunch, he charges $75,000 for speaking engagement. So it gives you a sense of who he is. He has for for 20 years. And so he said, Kent, you've got a book in you. I was like, I wish you hadn't said that, because now I don't want to, I don't want to disappoint him, right? So there you go.   Michael Hingson ** 19:31 Well, if you write one at some point, you have to send us a picture of the cover and we'll stick it in the show notes whenever. Yeah, that sounds great, but yeah, I you know, I never thought of writing a book, but in 2002 we went to the AKC Eukanuba canine championship dog show in Orlando. It was in December, and among other people I met there. Here I met George Berger, who was at that time, the publisher of the American Kennel Club Gazette, and he said, You ought to write a book. And I went, why? Well, because you you have a great story to tell. You should really write a book. Well, it took eight years and a lot of time sitting in front of Microsoft Word to get notes down, but eventually I met someone named Susie Flory who called because she was writing a book called Dog tails. And it was a story of what she wanted to write stories of, actually, 17 different dogs who had done some pretty interesting and miraculous things. And she wanted to write a story about my guide dog at the World Trade Center, Roselle. And she said, Tell me your story, if you would. And I did. And when we were done, there was this pause, and then she said, You need to write a book. And since I've written books, I'll help you. And a year later, underdog was published, and it became a number one New York Times bestseller. So that was pretty cool.   Kent Lewis ** 21:01 That's fantastic. Congratulations. Very impressive.   Michael Hingson ** 21:04 And then last year, well, in 2013 we published a children's book called running with Roselle, but more adults by a thing kids, because it's not a picture book, but it tells the story of me growing up and Roselle growing up, and how we met, and all that. So it isn't really as much a World Trade Center book. But then last year, we wrote, live like a guide dog. And the intent of live like a guide dog is to say to people, look fear is all around us, and so many people just allow themselves to be paralyzed, or, as I say, blinded by fear, so they can't make decisions. They don't learn how to control it. But if you learn how to control fear, you can use fear as a very powerful tool to help you stay focused, and you'll make better decisions. So we use lessons I learned from my guide dogs on my wife's service dog to write, live like a guide dog. And so it is out there, and it's it's a lot of fun, too. So you know, it isn't the easiest thing to write a book, but I would think you have a book in you, and you should, well, I   Kent Lewis ** 22:03 appreciate that vote of confidence. And hey, I mean, you did it, and you had an amazing story, and you've done it multiple times. Actually, it's great inspiration for me.   Michael Hingson ** 22:16 Well, I'm looking forward to reading it when it comes out. You'll have to let   22:20 us know. Yeah, will do so   Michael Hingson ** 22:23 you at some point, switched from being an employee to being an entrepreneur. How did that all happen? Why? Why did you do it? Or what really brought that about?   Kent Lewis ** 22:38 Well, I kept getting fired.   Michael Hingson ** 22:40 So why'd that happen?   Kent Lewis ** 22:42 Yeah, so that's the fun part. So I I've never been fired for cause like a legit clause. I'm a high powered, high performer, and so I actually, that's why. So the first time I was fired was by the guy that invited me to co found an agency. His name was Ryan Wilson. He was my he was my boss. And then he was fired by our larger agency. He ran a team that I worked on. I worked for him. I was inspired by him. I I was mentored by him. I thought the world of him. So when he came to me three months after he got fired, it was about, it's always about a girl. So he he basically, he got divorced. And so this other woman, they met at the office, and they were soul mates, and they he had to clean up his life. And he did, and he said, I've got an agency die. I've got two clients ready to sign. I need key employees, and you're one, one of them, then I would hope you would join me. I said, No, the first time he got his act together. I said, yes, the second time, and that. So I we built an agency together with, you know, we start with six people. I brought in two other people and another gal that ran the PR side. I was running the digital side. She brought in somebody said we had six of us on day one, and a year later, we didn't have a formal share shareholder agreement for our percentage of the company that went from being worth zero to being worth a few million dollars, and we felt that we should have something in writing, and before he could, we could get something formally in writing. My, my other partner, she, I didn't really want to do the business with her, but I didn't really have a choice. I want to do the business with him. She said, I'm asking for more equity. I said, Okay, I feel like that's fair. I think we've earned it, but, and I'll, I'll be there with you, but I wouldn't have done this if she hadn't said, I'm going in. Are you with me? So when I we asked, she asked me to make the ask. I wasn't necessarily prepared or thinking about it, and it really offended him. He was really mad, and he was playing to fire her, and by me teaming up with her, he felt, you know, slight. And he fired us both, and the next week, I started anvil, my agency, Anvil Media, that I ran for 22 years, I did a couple other starts, one with a college friend and a guy I had met at that that at one of the first, one of the earlier agency agencies I'd worked at. He and we, he and I and my college buddy started an email marketing agency in 02 and then I decided, well, this isn't for me, but I now learn it's not that scary to hire employees. So then I started hiring employees at anvil and late 03 and so I ran anvil with employees for, you know, 20 years. Two of those first two years were just me and some contractors and and then, oh, wait, I started a second agency because I needed a more affordable solution for my partners in small business called Formic media. Ran that for five years before I merged it with with anvil. But in between, I was also fired. When I first started anvil, I was it was just a hang of shingle in 2000 to do some consulting, but I wanted a full time gig, and a year later, I had an opportunity to run my my team from the agency. I was fired from that company. That agency was sold to another agency for pennies on the dollar. And when my old boss died, rest in peace, we hadn't really cleared the air yet, which is it still is one of my greatest regrets. You know, for nine months we didn't talk, and then he passed away. Everybody peace, not before he passed away, I was able to get, yeah, his his soul mate. They weren't married yet, but they were going to get married. She told me that two weeks before he died, he expressed regrets and how we had ended the relationship, how he had fired me, and he was looking forward to reconnecting and re engaging our friendship. And so that made that meant the world to me. I had a lot of peace in knowing that, but I so the first the second place I got fired was this agency again about a girl. So the first time was a girl telling me, you need to ask the boss for more money or more equity. And I did, and that offended him. And the second time was my girlfriend at the time, who's who moved over from that agency to the new agency where my my old boss died before he could really start there. She was dating on the side the Creative Director at that agency, and he'd been there over 20 years. And so when I started there, I saw something was up, and I was like, Is there anything going on? She's like, No. And so eventually I just broke up with her anyway, because I just it wasn't working, even if she wouldn't admit that she was having a side relationship. But I was eventually fired because he was a board, you know, he was on the board. He was, he wasn't my boss, per se, but he was one of the senior partners, and they just wanted me out. You know, she might have money. Wanted me out. He definitely wanted me out. So that was the second time I got fired. And then the third time I got fired was it kept the stakes get given, getting bigger. When I sold my agency 14 months later, they fired me, really, not to this day, not for any cause. It's that they asked me to take an 80% pay cut a year into my buyout, and I and then I they were going to close my Portland office, which I was, I own the building, so I didn't want to lose my own myself as a tenant, so I offered to reduce my rent 30% so I basically, for two and a half months, worked for free for this agency that had bought my agency. So they were making payments to me. I was carrying the note, but they they couldn't. A year later, they're like, I'm sorry. So they a year later, I took a pay cut for two and a half months, and when I asked them, you know, when am I getting back to my pay? They said, Well, you know, we can't guarantee. We don't have a path for you back to your full pay. And I was like, Okay, well, then I told my wife, let him inform them that we're going to go back to, we are going to go back to our full rack rate on our rent. And when I, when we notified them, they they totally, they totally fired me. So they canceled the lease, and they fired me, and so they so it. And you know, I, my team was slowly being dismantled, a 10 of us, 11 of us, I guess 10 or 11 us went over, and within a year, there were only two wait. Within two years, there was only one person left on my team. So it was a really sad, sad experience for me. It wasn't as hard to sell my business as I thought. It wasn't as hard, you know, just emotionally, it wasn't as hard to sunset my brand after 22 years. Wasn't easy, but it was way easier than I thought. What was hard for me was watching them was was closing the office. It broke my heart and and then watching them dismantle my team that I spent, you know, two decades building, most of that team was within 10 years, the last 10 years, last even five years of of our business. Us. There was a relatively new team, but we were so tight, and it was just heartbreaking. So, you know,   Michael Hingson ** 30:09 yeah, wow. So what do you think was your biggest mistake in running your own agency?   Kent Lewis ** 30:19 That's a great question. I think the biggest, biggest mistake was not understanding the Hire great people and get out of the way. Lee Iacocca, you know, to paraphrase him, I hired great people and I got out of their way. But what I didn't do was make sure they had all the proper training, alignment of core values that they had, there was enough trust between us that they could come to me with they were struggling or failing. Apparently, I was a fairly intimidating figure for my former my young recruits, but most of that time, up until the last five years, I always had a senior VP my right hand. I hired her with the attention that she might take over the business someday, she was totally creating a wall between me and my employees, and I didn't know it until 2012 and so, you know, I had 10 years to try to undo what she had created the first 10 years, basically of a fear based management style, so that that didn't help me, and I didn't believe it. I didn't really see it. So then I rebuilt the company, and from the ground up, I blew it up in 2013 so 10 years after of having employees, 13 years of having the business, I completely dismantled and blew it up and rebuilt it. And what did that look like? It started with me just not wanting to go to work in the building, and I realized I can't quit because I'm the owner, so I have to fix it. Okay? I don't mind fixing things. I prefer to fix other people's problems instead of my own, but I really a lot of people do, right? Yeah. So I wrote a credo, basically, what would it take for me? What are, what are it got down to 10 truths, what? What are the truths that I need to go into work and that others around me, co workers, team members, need to also agree on so that we can work together successfully. So it went from being about clients to being about the team and being about accountability. And you know, it was so it was so decisive. It was so radical for my current team that had been with me five to 10 years of they lose clients, I get more clients. And I eventually told them, I can't replace clients as fast as you're losing them. It's not a sustainable business model, so you need to be accountable for your actions and your decisions. That's the new anvil. You and you're out. I gave them 72 hours to think about it and sign it. Signed literally to these credo. It's not a legal document, it's just a commitment to credo. And half the team didn't sign it, and they quit. And then within 12 months, the rest of the team either quit or we've I fired them because they did not fit in the new anvil. And it's funny because everybody else that I brought in didn't even it didn't even register. The credo was so unremarkable to them, because we were already aligned by the time we hired them, we'd done our research and the work to know who fit, and so they didn't register. So eventually we just dropped the credo was no longer needed as a guide or a framework. It's still on the website, but, but you don't, you know it doesn't really matter. But that's what I got wrong, is I did not build the trust. I did not have I had processes in place, but but without the trust, people wouldn't tell me how they felt or that they were struggling. So a lot of process wasn't recognized or utilized properly. So I rebuilt it to where and rebuilt the trust to where the team that was with me when I sold I was very close with them. There was 100% trust across the board, a mutual respect, arguably a mutual love for the craft, for each other, for the company, for our clients, and it was a lot of fun to work with them. I didn't sell because I was unhappy. I sold because I was happy, and I thought now's a good time to go and find a good home. Plus my wife was my operations manager for five years, and she wanted out. Frankly, I thought it was easier to sell the business than try to replace my wife, because she was very good at what she did. She just didn't like doing it, yeah? And she also didn't like, you know, me being her boss. I never saw it that way. But once she explained it, after I sold, she explained, like, you know, you boss me around at work, and then you try to boss me around at home, and I'm not having it. You pick one? Yeah, so, so I was like, I think, like, I bossed you around. And she's like, Hey, you just, it was your company. It was always going to be your company. And, you know, that's fine, but you know, I want to move on. I was like, Okay, why don't we just sell and so that, yeah, they the operational people. And so it took her, took that load off of her. She's worked for. Nonprofit now, so she's happy, and so that's good.   Michael Hingson ** 35:05 Well, it also sounds like there were a lot of people that well, first of all, you changed your your view and your modus operandi a little bit over time, and that's why you also got you fired, or you lost people. But it also sounds like what you did was you brought in more people, not only who thought like you, but who really understood the kinds of goals that you were looking at. And so it was a natural sort of thing. You brought in people who really didn't worry about the credo, because they lived by it anyway.   Kent Lewis ** 35:38 Yeah, that's exactly right. And that was, that was my lesson. Was, you know, I always knew there's a concept called Top grading. You know, you thoroughly vet client, you hire slow and you fire fast. Most entrepreneurs or business owners hire fast and fire slow, and it's very, very expensive and but, you know, I got that part and I just better. I was far better at, I was far better at, what would I say, creating processes than kind of feeling, the love? And so once I figured that stuff out, it got a lot it got a lot better.   Michael Hingson ** 36:16 It's a growth thing. Yes,   36:18 exactly, yeah. Well, you   Michael Hingson ** 36:21 have something, and you sent me something about it. You call it Jerry Maguire moment. Tell me about that.   Kent Lewis ** 36:28 Yeah. So that's, you know, I just, I just sort of backed into the story of just being unhappy. But what ended up happening more specifically that Jerry Maguire moment was putting my son to bed in March of 2013 and I mentioned that feeling of not of dread. I didn't want to go to work. I was frustrated with my team, disappointed in my clients, not appreciating the work we were doing, frustrated with some of my partners. You know, in the business, I felt disconnected from the work of digital because I'd worked on the business for longer than I'd worked in the business by that point, and so I just, it was, it was, I was a bit of a mess. And I realized, like, I need a reason to get up and go to work in the morning. And that's when I came up. I was inspired by Jerry Maguire's manifesto from from the movie, and apparently you can find it online. It's a 28 page manifesto. So I ended up distilling into those 10 truths that we called the credo, and so what happening is just again to recap, it took me a like a couple days. I had instant clarity. I like I fell asleep like a rock. Once I realized I had a plan and I had a framework, I felt better about it, even though there was much work to do. So as I mentioned, you know, half the team quit within the first week, the other half bled out over the next year. That meant 100% employee turnover for two years in a row. As like as I upgraded my team, that was painful. I had to hire three people in order to keep one good one. You know, as I as I search, because we don't have formal degrees in the world of digital marketing, right? So it's hard to find the talent, and you want to hold on to the good ones when you get them. So it took a long time to get the team dialed. Meanwhile, my clients got tired of the turnover. As I was trying to figure it out, they started leaving in droves, and so in 2014 in March, a year later, exactly, I lost my five biggest clients in a 30 to 45 day period. So I lost, you know, 40, over 40% of my revenue vaporized, and I could not replace it fast enough. So I didn't take a salary for nine months. I asked two senior execs to take small pay cuts like 10% and as we hunkered down, and so I didn't have to lay off any good talent, and so I didn't, and we sprinted, we rebuilt, you know, the pipeline, and brought some new clients in. By the end of the year, I paid back my my two senior employees, their 10% that they pay cut. I paid them back, but I didn't take a salary for nine months of that year. It was the worst year I'd ever had, and the only time I ever had to take a pay cut or miss a paycheck myself. So that was the price I paid. The plus side is once I realized that the focus should be on the employees, which was what the credo was, I didn't realize at the time that it wasn't about my clients anymore. They were the life blood. They were the blood flow, right? But we have this organism that needed love, so we I breathe life back into it, one employee at a time until we had a higher functioning group. So it took me five or six years, and in 2019 so six years after I blew the business up, I had an offer on the table, had a sale agreement finalized, and we were less than a week away from funding, and I backed out of the deal because I felt, one, it wasn't a good cultural fit, and two, there was more work to do. It wasn't about increasing my valuation more. It was about finishing my journey of an employee first agency and. Three years later, I sold for one and a half x higher multiple, so an additional seven figures to to another agency based on a stronger profitability, even though the revenue is about the same, stronger, you know, profitability right better. Happy clients, stable clients. It was a lower risk acquisition for them and the so that was the high point. The low point was becoming an employee and wanting to be the best damn employee that agency had ever seen to being a very disappointed, disengaged, disheartened, disheartened employee. And I then I decided I started writing notes of everything, not to do that they were doing wrong. And I decided, once they let me go, I need to focus on this. I think I needed to help my other fellow entrepreneurs ways to avoid going through what I went through as an employee, because I had just been one, and most of my employ, my entrepreneur friends, haven't been an employee for over 10 years. You easily, quickly forget what it's like to be an employee, and I want to remind them and as other senior leaders, how important it is to put your employees first, otherwise you can never deliver on your brand promise no matter what it is, because they won't deliver to your standards. Because it's you know, they don't feel the same attachment to a business if they as if they're not owners, right?   Michael Hingson ** 41:22 But it sounds like you also, when you did sell, by that time, you had employees, one who had bought into the credo, into the philosophy, and two were satisfied. So it was a much better situation all the way around. Anyway,   Kent Lewis ** 41:38 exactly. It's right? And that's, that's the thing is, I realized it's not about throwing money at a problem. It's about throwing time and care at a problem. And the problem is that most employers, there is no loyalty employ to employees anymore, and therefore there's no employee loyalty to brands anymore, to their employers. And so I'm trying to unwind that. And it's not about pension plans, per se. It's not about bonuses, really at all. That's one of 120 items on my punch list of auditing and employee journey is, yeah, do you have a bonus program? Mine was basically spot bonuses, little spot bonuses for timely things, because the big cash bonuses blew up in my face. You know, i i the biggest bonus check I ever wrote. The next day he quit and created a competing agency. Now, he had planned that all along it, the bonus was only helped him do it faster, but I realized there was no appreciation for the bonuses. So stop doing that. So instead, I would bonus, reward the team with experiences rather than cash. And they the cash they got from a really, I paid over market, so that money was not an issue, and so that experiences were the memorable part and the fun part, and it helped motivate when we'd have a little contest with, you know, the wind being a dinner or whatever it was, something fun, right?   Michael Hingson ** 43:00 I was, earlier today, talking with someone who's going to be a guest on the podcast. He's in Germany, and we were talking about the fact that there's a major discussion in Germany right now about the concept of a four day work week, as opposed to a five day work week, and in the four day work week. Inevitably, companies that subscribe to the four day work week have higher productivity, happier employees, and some of those companies have a four day work week with a total of 36 hours and up through a four day work week with 40 hours, which is, of course, 10 hours a day. And what he said, I asked the question, did it make a difference as to whether it was 36 or 40 hours? What he said was mainly not, because it was really about having three days with family, and that that whole mental attitude is really it that we, we have forgotten, I think, in this country, about employee loyalty so much, and we just don't see anything like what we used to see.   Kent Lewis ** 44:09 100% you are correct,   Michael Hingson ** 44:13 and so it is. It is an issue that people really ought to deal with in some way. But you know now the new chancellor in Germany wants to go back to a five day work week, just completely ignoring all the statistics and what's shown. So the discussion is ongoing over there. I'll be interested to see how it goes.   Kent Lewis ** 44:36 Yeah, yeah, totally. I would be in Troy. Yeah. We know for whatever reason, for whatever reason that they've you know that well, I guess it kind of makes sense. But you know, you wouldn't think you could be more productive fewer days a week, but the research is showing that these people, that you know, that the like the Northern Europeans, are the, you know, Finnish and Scandinavians are like the half. People on the planet, despite not being in maybe the friendliest climate, you know, 12 months of the year because of a lot of how they value, you know, work life balance and all of that. And I think that's the thing, you know, we we came from an industrial age where unions got us the weekends off. You know, it's a very different we've come a long way, but there's still a lot more to go, so I, I will be interested to see what happens with the with that concept that four day work week.   Michael Hingson ** 45:26 Well, the other part about it is we had the pandemic, and one of the things that came out of the pandemic, at least, I think, in the minds of a lot of employees, was even working at home, and having to do that, you still got to spend more time with family and people value that. Now I don't know how over time that's going to work, because I know there's been a lot of advocating to go back to just everybody always being in the office, but it seems to me that the better environment would be a hybrid environment, where, if somebody can work at home and do at least as well as they do at the office. Why wouldn't you allow that?   Kent Lewis ** 46:04 Right? Yeah, I think it's that's the other thing is, I do believe hybrid work is the best solution. We were doing three three days, two days in the office, required, one day, optional flex. I ended up going in most days of the week before I, you know, even after we sold and we sell at the office, because I like, I'm a social being, and I really enjoyed the time at the office. And it was, it was, I designed the space, and it was, you know, as my place, and it was my home away from home, you know. So I feel like I've lost a little bit of my identity, losing that office. Yeah, so, but yeah, I do think that it makes sense to be able to do remote work, whatever, wherever people are most effective. But I do know there is a reality that companies are fully remote have a struggle to create cohesiveness and connectiveness across distributed teams. It's just it's just science, right? Psychology, but you can be very intentional to mitigate as much as you can the downside of remote and then play up as much as you can the benefits of remote people having their life and they see, on average, I heard that people valued their remote work about to worth about $6,000 on average, that there's a number that they've quantified.   Michael Hingson ** 47:21 Wow. Well, I know I've worked in offices, but I've also done a lot of work at home. So for example, I had a job back in the late 1970s and worked and lived in Massachusetts until 1981 and the company I worked for was being pursued by Xerox. And the the assumption was that Xerox was going to buy the company. So I was asked to relocate back out to California, where I had grown up, and help integrate the company into Xerox. And so I did. And so that was the first time I really worked mostly out of home and remotely from an office. And did that for two and a half, almost, well, a little over two and a half years. And my thanks for it was I was terminated because we had a recession and the big issue really was, though, that Xerox had bought the company and phased out all the people in sales because they didn't want the people. They just wanted the technology. And I've always believed that's a big mistake, because the tribal knowledge that people have is not something that you're going to get any other place. Totally, totally agree. But anyway, that occurred, and then I couldn't find a job, because the unemployment rate among employable blind people was so high, since people didn't believe blind people could work. So I ended up starting my own company selling computer aided design systems, CAD systems, to architects. Some of the early PC based CAD systems. Sold them to architects and engineers and so on. So I did have an office. We started, I started it with someone else, and had an office for four years, and then decided I had enough of owning my own company for a while, and went to work for someone else, and again, worked in an office and did that for seven years. Yeah, about seven years, and then I ended up in at the end of that, or the later part of that time, I was asked to relocate now back to the East Coast, because I was selling to Wall Street and New York and Wall Street firms really want, even though they might buy from resellers and so on, they want company, companies that make products to have them an office that they can deal with. So I ended up going back and mostly worked out of the office. But then, um. I left that company in 1997 and it was, it was a little bit different, because I was, I I had my own office, and I was the only person in it for a little while. We did have some engineers, but we all kind of worked in the office and sometimes at home. But for me, the real time of working at home happened in 2008 I was working at a nonprofit and also traveling and speaking, and the people who ran the nonprofit said, nobody's interested in September 11 anymore. And you know, you're you're not really adding any value to what we do, so we're going to phase out your job. Yeah, nobody was interested in September 11. And three years later, we had a number one New York Times bestseller, but anyway, your face yeah, so I ended up opening the Michael Hinkson Group Inc, and working out of home, and I've been doing that ever since. I enjoy working in an office. But I can work at home and I can, I can adapt. So my exposure to people and working not at home is when I travel and speak and get to go visit people and interact with them and so on. So it works out   Kent Lewis ** 51:05 that's, that's fantastic, congratulations. That's awesome.   Michael Hingson ** 51:10 It is, it is, you know, sometimes a challenge, but it works. So for you, what is your philosophy? You obviously do a lot of giving back to the community nowadays, is that something that has kind of grown over time, or you always had that? Or what's your philosophy regarding that?   Kent Lewis ** 51:29 So I I believe that, as I mentioned, I believe earlier that learn and return us. I believe that you should giving, giving back your entire life, as soon as you're able to, in whatever way. And so I, you know, when I first moved to Portland, I barely knew anybody. I was volunteering at this local neighborhood house where it was, you know, as tutoring this kid, and ironically, in math. And I'm terrible at math. Then I went to Big Brothers, Big Sisters for a while, and then I for the last 19 for last 25 years, I've been a volunteer, and for eight or nine of those years, I was on the board of smart reading. It's a, it's a, it's not a literacy program in that you're not teaching kids to read. You're teaching kids a love of reading. So you just sit with, you know, title, title, one school kindergarteners in an area near you, and you sit and read with them for 10 to 15 minutes, that's it. And it's a game changer, because some of them didn't own any books. And then they get to take books home with them, you know, like scholastic style books. So anyway, I I decided, of all, like I have friends, that their their passion is pets, others, it's like forests or planet or whatever. To me, I think I can, I can solve all of those problems if I invest in children, because they're shaping our future, and we can put them on a trajectory. So for instance, statistically, prison capacity is based on third grade reading levels in blue. So if you're if you can't learn to read, you can't read to learn, so you need to have a be a proficient reader by third grade, or you're left behind, and you're more likely, 10 times more likely, to be in the system, and you know, not in a good way. So I realized, well, if I can help these kids with a love of reading, I was, I was slow to learn reading myself. I realized that maybe we, you know that one kid that you find a love of reading, that finds books they love and is inspired by the books and continues to read and have a successful educational career, then that's that person may go on to solve cancer or world hunger or whatever it is. So that's kind of how I look at so that's my theory in general about giving. And then specifically my passion is children. So that's kind of my thing, and I think there are a lot of different ways to do it. Last night, I was at my wife's auction or the fundraiser for her nonprofit, which is around the foster system. It's called Casa court, important court, court appointed special advocate. So these kids in the foster system have an advocate, that that's not a lawyer or a caseworker, you know, by their side through the legal system. And I think that's a fantastic cause. It aligns with my children cause. And I was, I had seven my parents fostered seven daughters, you know, Daughters of other people, and the last two were very that I remember were transformative for me as an only child, to have a sister, you know, foster sister that was living with us for, in one case, two years. And it was invaluable and helpful to me. She helped me find my love of reading, helped me learn my multiplication tables, all that things that your parents might be able to do, but it's so much cooler doing with somebody that's, you know, I think she was 17 when she moved into our house, and I was, like, nine, and she was so helpful to me, so inspiring. So in a nutshell, that's, that's what we're talking about   Michael Hingson ** 54:55 when you talk talk about reading. I'm of the opinion and one of the best. Things that ever happened to reading was Harry Potter. Just the number of people, number of kids who have enjoyed reading because they got to read the Harry Potter books. I think that JK Rowling has brought so many kids to reading. It's incredible.   Kent Lewis ** 55:14 Yeah, yeah. 100% 100% I Yeah. I think that even you may, you know, you may or may not like rolling, but I as a person, but she did an amazing thing and made reading fun, and that that's what matters, yeah, you know,   Michael Hingson ** 55:33 yeah, well, and that's it, and then she's just done so much for for children and adults. For that matter, I talked to many adults who've read the books, and I've read all the books. I've read them several times, actually, yeah, now I'm spoiled. I read the audio versions read by Jim Dale, and one of my favorite stories about him was that he was in New York and was going to be reading a part of the latest Harry Potter book on September 11, 2001 in front of scholastic when, of course, everything happened. So he didn't do it that day, but he was in New York. What a you know, what a time to be there. That's fantastic. But, you know, things happen. So you one of the things that I've got to believe, and I think that you've made abundantly clear, is that the kind of work you do, the PR, the marketing, and all of that kind of interaction is a very time consuming, demanding job. How do you deal with work and family and make all of that function and work? Well,   Kent Lewis ** 56:41 good question. I, I believe that that the, well, two things you have to have, you know, discipline, right? And so what I've done is really focused on managing my time very, very carefully, and so I have now keep in mind my oldest, I have three kids, one's graduating college as a senior, one's a sophomore who will be a junior next next year, and then The last is a sophomore in high school, so I'm there at ages where two are out of the house, so that's a little easier to manage, right? So there's that, but similarly, I try to maximize my time with my youngest and and with my wife, you know, I built in, you know, it was building in date nights, because it's easy to get into a rut where you don't want to leave the house or don't want to do whatever. And I found that it's really been good for our relationship at least once a month. And so far, it's been more like almost twice a month, which has been huge and awesome. But I've just intentional with my time, and I make sure 360 I take care of myself, which is typically working out between an hour and an hour and a half a day that I'm I really need to work on my diet, because I love burgers and bourbon and that's in moderation, perhaps sustainable, but I need to eat more veggies and less, you know, less garbage. But I also have been at the gym. I go in the Steam Room and the sauna, and I'm fortunate to have a hot tub, so I try to relax my body is after my workouts, I've been sleeping more since covid, so I work out more and sleep and sleep more post covid. And because I'm working from home, it's really I find it much easier to get up and take breaks or to, you know, just to manage my time. I'm not traveling like I used to, right? That's a, that's a big factor. So, so anyway, that's, that's kind of my take on that. I don't know if that really helps, but that's, that's kind of where I'm at.   Michael Hingson ** 58:59 The other part about it, though, is also to have the discipline to be able to be at home and work when you know you have to work, and yeah, you get to take more breaks and so on, but still developing the discipline to work and also to take that time is extremely important. I think a lot of people haven't figured out how to do that   Kent Lewis ** 59:19 right exactly, and that is so I do have an immense amount of, I do have an immense amount of, what would you say discipline? And so I don't know, yeah, I don't have that problem with getting the work done. In fact, my discipline is knowing when to stop, because I get into it, and I want to get things done, and I want to get it off my plate, so I tend to do sprints. But the other lesson I have from covid is listening to your biorhythms. So, you know, we're a time based society, and we look, you don't want to be late for this and that I you know, that's great, fine. But what's really more important in my mind is, um. Is to, is to be thinking about, is to let your body tell you when it's tired, if and and more importantly, is to not stress about in the mornings when I wake up early. By that, I mean between four and 6am before I really want to get up at 630 and I just if I'm awake, then I'll write stuff down to get it out of my head, or I will just start doing my start my day early and and not stress about, oh, I didn't get enough sleep. My body will catch up, yeah, it will tell me to go to bed early, or I'll sleep better the next day, or whatever it is. So that was important, and also to learn that I'm most I can get a lot of tasks done in the morning. And I think bigger picture, and that's what, that's why I wake up early, is all the things I need to do that I forgot. I didn't write down or whatever, and I think of them at between four and 6am but the other is that I do my best writing in the afternoon, like between four and six. So I told my, my wife and my, you know, my my kids, you know, my first figures out when they were both in the House. I was like, I may be working late, jamming out an article or doing whatever right before dinner, or I might be a little late. Can we can wait for dinner for a little bit? They're like, Yeah, that's fine. We don't care, right? So, but normally I'd be like, I gotta get home because it's dinner time. But now that I'm already home, I just keep working through, and then, and then, oh, I can take a quick break. But my point is, they're totally adaptable.   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:27 But you communicate, yes, communication issue is key. Is key, absolutely. That's really the issues that you do communicate.   Kent Lewis ** 1:01:36 It's all about setting expectations. And they had no expectations other than eating dinner. And we've been eating dinner later. Just, just a natural evolution. So it's not, it's not even an issue now, because I don't want to, I don't want to, what, right? What? Late at night, I just found it late afternoon, I just in a zone. Anyway, yeah, you listen to your body, and I'm way less stressed because I'm not worried about, oh my god, I have to get to bed at a certain time or wake up at a certain time. It's like, just kind of run with it, you know, and and go from there. So what's next for you? What's next? So I want to shift from going from speaking for free to speaking for a fee. There you go. And the re the reason why is I never asked for, and I'd even waive, you know, honorarium or pay because I got more value out of the leads. But now that I don't have an agency to represent, two things. One is, I want to get paid to do my employee engagement retention talks, because it's I'm getting great feedback on it, which is fun. But I also am being paid now by other agencies, a day rate, plus travel to go speak at the conferences. I've always spoken on that like me and want me and I just represent. I just changed the name that I'm representing. That's it, you know,   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:56 well, and there's value in it. I realized some time ago, and I k

Kent Lewis is the Managing Partner at Anvil Unlimited, specializing in advising businesses on digital marketing strategies.   He co-founded his first digital agency within four years and faced his first termination as a co-founder just a year and a half later.   He's also an accomplished speaker and writer, contributing to publications like Smart Brief and Portland Business Journal, and serves as an adjunct professor at Portland State University.   Kent emphasizes that employee retention and engagement hinge on workers feeling empowered, valued, and impactful.   Kent also shares his approach to leadership, defining being a CEO as helping foster a movement that meets societal needs rather than merely focusing on profit.   Kent highlights the importance of prioritizing employee well-being and development - organizations can cultivate a more engaged and productive workforce. LinkedIn: Kent Lewis  Website: Kent J Lewis  Other sites: pdxMindShare   Check out our CEO Hack Buzz Newsletter–our premium newsletter with hacks and nuggets to level up your organization. Sign up HERE.  I AM CEO Handbook Volume 3 is HERE and it's FREE. Get your copy here: http://cbnation.co/iamceo3. Get the 100+ things that you can learn from 1600 business podcasts we recorded. Hear Gresh's story, learn the 16 business pillars from the podcast, find out about CBNation Architects and why you might be one and so much more. Did we mention it was FREE? Download it today!

Crafting the Employee Experience    Take away: Developing an abundant mindset centered on gratitude for what you have, rather than lament what's lacking, is key to living a fulfilling life. Balancing business growth with personal fulfillment means defining your "why" and ideal lifestyle, not just chasing endless expansion. Prioritizing employee engagement through efforts like "stay interviews" and enabling people to do what they're passionate about leads to higher profitability and client satisfaction. And instilling financial literacy around passive income streams like real estate from an early age can set a strong foundation for long-term wealth creation.   Money Learnings: Kent's parents had purchased a 10-unit apartment building before he was born. While they had modest incomes from their jobs, the rental income and equity buildup from the apartment building provided an additional stream of income and financial security. This taught Kent the value of real estate investments for generating passive income. His parents taught him not to rely on Social Security for retirement income, as it may not exist by the time he retires. They emphasized that he would need to create his own wealth and fund his own retirement through savings and investments. His uncle's example of buying his first apartment building while in college, and dressing professionally because successful real estate investors dressed that way, also influenced Kent's view of real estate as a path to building wealth from an early age.   Bio: Kent Lewis founder of pdxMindShare, an online career community and networking group mentioned on Seth Godin's blog. Formerly a CMO and founder or co-founder of multiple agencies, he's known as a thought leader in digital marketing. He's been an adjunct professor for more than 20 years at Portland State University and a volunteer instructor for SCORE. Lewis co-founded SEMpdx in 2006, a trade organization for search engine marketing professionals. His recognition includes Marketer of the Year by the American Marketing Association and Top 100 Digital Marketing Influencers by BuzzSumo.   Highlights from this episode: Building passive income streams through real estate investments as a way to achieve financial independence. Balancing personal fulfillment with business growth - finding the right size and structure that aligns with your values and desired lifestyle. Prioritizing employee engagement and satisfaction as a key driver of profitability and client retention. Conducting "stay interviews" to understand what motivates employees and how to improve their experience. Defining your "why" and living life on your own terms, rather than chasing other people's definitions of success. Cultivating an attitude of gratitude and focusing on what you have, rather than what you lack, to live an abundant life.   Links: https://kentjlewis.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whats-your-story-write-book-kent-lewis/ https://twitter.com/kentjlewis https://www.anvilmediainc.com/     Richer Soul Life Beyond Money. You got rich, now what? Let's talk about your journey to more a purposeful, intentional, amazing life. Where are you going to go and how are you going to get there? Let's figure that out together. At the core is the financial well being to be able to do what you want, when you want, how you want. It's about personal freedom!   Thanks for listening!   Show Sponsor: http://profitcomesfirst.com/   Schedule your free no obligation call: https://bookme.name/rockyl/lite/intro-appointment-15-minutes   If you like the show please leave a review on iTunes: http://bit.do/richersoul   https://www.facebook.com/richersoul http://richersoul.com/ rocky@richersoul.com   Some music provided by Junan from Junan Podcast   Any financial advice is for educational purposes only and you should consult with an expert for your specific needs.

Inspire, Empower & Educate with Kent Lewis (@kentjlewis) where they share their biggest lessons learned and words of wisdom from starting and selling companies!   Find out more about them at Website: https://kentjlewis.com/ Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/kentlewis/ Get your 2-month free trial of my Inner Circle here https://bit.ly/InnerCircle2MTrial   Join the FREE Facebook group for The Michael Brian Show at https://www.facebook.com/groups/themichaelbrianshow   Follow Mike on Facebook Instagram & Twitter  

As a 6x entrepreneur, 10x agency professional and digital marketer since 1996, Kent Lewis is currently Founder of pdxMindShare, a networking group and online career community. He speaks internationally, writes for industry publications like Inc. and SmartBrief and is regularly quoted in the media. Kent was President and Founder of Anvil Media for 22 years, before selling his agency in 2022. He was also an adjunct professor at Portland State University for 20 years. Kent was named a Top 40 Under 40, Marketer of the Year by AMA Oregon and a Top 100 Digital Marketing Influencer by BuzzSumo. Key Moments [08:06] Struggling with age bias in work. [11:04] Realized business leader's intent wasn't perfect. [12:50] Realized importance of employee experience for success. [17:11] Smaller shops target tech market, face competition. [20:01] Avoided investing initially, then pushed sales and marketing. [22:09] Overcoming challenges, rebuilding, and finding success. [26:23] Survive challenges, maintain support, open up. Find Kent Online https://pdxmindshare.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/kentlewis/ https://twitter.com/kentjlewis If you're enjoying Entrepreneur's Enigma, please give us a review on the podcast directory of your choice. We're on all of them and these reviews really help others find the show. GoodPods: https://gmwd.us/goodpods iTunes: https://gmwd.us/itunes Podchaser: https://gmwd.us/podchaser Also, if you're getting value from the show and want to buy me a coffee, go to the show notes to get the link to get me a coffee to keep me awake, while I work on bringing you more great episodes to your ears. →  https://gmwd.us/buy-me-a-coffee Follow Seth Online: Seth | Digital Marketer (@s3th.me) • Instagram: Instagram.com/s3th.me Seth Goldstein | LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/sethmgoldstein Seth On Mastodon: https://s3th.me/@pch Seth's Marketing Junto Newsletter: https://MarketingJunto.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Evolvepreneur (After Hours) Show I am your Special Host Richard Wray Join me today where we dig deep with our guests and get you the best concepts and strategies to fast-track your business. My very special guest today is Kent Lewis ... Kent had great success running his digital marketing agency, but over time became disconnected from his team and clients. He realized he needed a change when he was unhappy and unfulfilled. Kent created a credo to attract the right people and refocus the company, which helped improve employee retention. However, some employees took advantage of the relaxed culture and stopped respecting him. After a difficult period, Kent rebuilt the agency and focused on caring for his employees above all else. He now works to help companies bridge the gap between excellent employee and customer experiences, which can significantly boost business success. Kent advocates focusing first on creating a top-notch environment for workers as the path to profitability and longevity.

In this episode, Kent drops diamonds about ChatGPT from a marketer's perspective. He uses his article as a resource. Make sure you follow along with this link, https://corp.smartbrief.com/original/2023/01/7-ways-chatgpt-can-level-up-your-marketing.  Host: Nathan A Webster LinkedIn | Instagram | Twitter | NDUB Brand  Download and subscribe on Audible, Google, iHeartRadio, iTunes, Soundcloud, and Stitcher. Please rate, review and share! Podcast Sponsored by https://letsconnectpnw.com/

Kent wanted to share his entrepreneurial journey. From an intern to an entrepreneur to a vice president. Kent's professional career has been a winding road. Listen to a couple of decades of Kent's positions and companies.  Click here to follow along with Kent's article.   Host: Nathan A Webster LinkedIn | Instagram | Twitter | NDUB Brand  Download and subscribe on Audible, Google, iHeartRadio, iTunes, Soundcloud, and Stitcher. Please rate, review and share!   Podcast Sponsored by- https://letsconnectpnw.com/

It's that time to make 2023 predictions with Kent Lewis. Follow along with Kent's article: https://www.sempdx.org/blog/marketing/2023-marketing-predictions-deksia/.  Host: Nathan A Webster LinkedIn | Instagram | Twitter | NDUB Brand  Download and subscribe on Audible, Google, iHeartRadio, iTunes, Soundcloud, and Stitcher. Please rate, review and share!   Let's Connect Conference - https://letsconnectpnw.com/

Kent Lewis is with us today to discuss the New Economic System. We will get into crypto, the economy, cashless society, blockchain, censorship, and how our reality is manipulated. Guest Link Freedom Social

As a small business, using vendors and subcontractors can be tricky. Nathan shares some stories, but Anvil/Deksia CMO, Kent Lewis, gives a handful of useful tips and an example of how to be a great vendor. Host: Nathan A Webster LinkedIn | Instagram | Twitter | NDUB Brand  Download and subscribe on Audible, Google, iHeartRadio, iTunes, Soundcloud, and Stitcher.  Please rate, review and share! Please rate, review and share!

In our ninth episode, Kerry interviews Kent Lewis who is the CMO of Anvil/Deksia,  a marketing agency specializing in strategy-driven creative.  We discuss why he rebuilt Anvil in 2013 for his own mental health. Or as he calls it his Jerry Maguire moment. Which turned out to be the best thing for him and his business. About Kent Lewis:Lewis is currently Chief Marketing Officer for Anvil/Deksia, where he is responsible for the overall strategic direction of marketing, including evolving messaging and integration of our combined entity. With a background in integrated marketing, he left a public relations agency in 1996 to start his career in search engine marketing. Since then, he's helped grow businesses by connecting his clients with their constituents via the Internet. In 2000, Lewis founded Anvil Media, Inc., a measurable marketing agency specializing in search engine and social media marketing. Under his leadership, Anvil has received recognition from Portland Business Journal and Inc. Magazine as a Fastest Growing and Most Philanthropic Company. In March 2022, Anvil merged with Deksia, a Midwest-based agency specializing in strategy-driven creative. Show NotesKent Lewis on TwitterKent Lewis on Linkedineoportland.com - A business network for entrepreneurs to grow their businessJiro Dreams of Sushi - Kent mentioned this movie as an allegory for excellence Anvil/DeksiaAnvil Media's WebsiteDeksia's WebsiteDeksia On LinkedinFree Resources25 Years of Business Advice from an Entrepreneur & MarketerSupport the show

Anvil/Deksia CMO, Kent Lewis, is back to discussing a Brand 101 topic, perceptions. Nathan and Kent discussed his article. There were 30 questions, but now there are 10 so make sure you don't miss them.  Let's Connect Conference - https://letsconnectpnw.com/ Host: Nathan A Webster LinkedIn | Instagram | Twitter | NDUB Brand  Download and subscribe on Audible, Google, iHeartRadio, iTunes, Soundcloud, and Stitcher.  Please rate, review and share!

Anvil/Deksia CMO, Kent Lewis, dropped

Kent Lewis, CMO of Anvil Media, joins Cecilia to talk about being an accidental serial entrepreneur. How his being burned out led him to create a credo that transformed the business and helped him create a "bad ass" team.   LinkedIn:KentLewis | Twitter/Skype: @KentjLewis https://www.anvilmediainc.com/ Download his eBook: Driving Sales in Senior Living with Content Marketing   Ocean by LiQWYD | https://www.liqwydmusic.com Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US          

Kent Lewis has been in the digital marketing and general web space since the mid 1990s. He's seen the evolution firsthand. Kent is the CMO of Deksia, a digital marketing agency that bought out his agency, Anvil Media, recently. Kent is a big proponent of new web technologies and how they can be used to better humanity. From Web3 to the Metaverse to Augmented and Virtual Reality, he is at the forefront of it all as a first adopter. Find Kent Online https://www.linkedin.com/in/kentlewis/ https://twitter.com/kentjlewis https://deksia.com/ https://pdxmindshare.com/ If you liked this episode please go to the podcast directory of your choice and leave us a review. It helps others find the show. Also listen to the back catalog of 3 seasons of digital marketing goodness over at https://goldsteinmedia.com/goldstein-media-podcasts/. Find Olivia at OliviaSisinni.com Find Seth at GoldsteinMedia.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kent Lewis has been in the digital marketing and general web space since the mid 1990s. He's seen the evolution firsthand. Kent is the CMO of Deksia, a digital marketing agency that bought out his agency, Anvil Media, recently. Kent is a big proponent of new web technologies and how they can be used to better humanity. From Web3 to the Metaverse to Augmented and Virtual Reality, he is at the forefront of it all as a first adopter. Find Kent Online https://www.linkedin.com/in/kentlewis/ https://twitter.com/kentjlewis https://deksia.com/ https://pdxmindshare.com/ If you liked this episode please go to the podcast directory of your choice and leave us a review. It helps others find the show. Also listen to the back catalog of 3 seasons of digital marketing goodness over at https://goldsteinmedia.com/goldstein-media-podcasts/. Find Olivia at OliviaSisinni.com Find Seth at GoldsteinMedia.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kent Lewis joins us again to cover outbound sales strategy tips and tactics. To follow along with his article, go here. Host: Nathan A Webster LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanawebster/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ndubnassociates/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/nathanawebster Services: https://ndubbrand.com/our-services/  Download and subscribe on Audible, Google, iHeartRadio, iTunes, Soundcloud, and Stitcher.  Please rate, review and share!

Our godfather of marketing, Kent Lewis, is back to talk about his learnings from being a business owner. Here are the six strategies: Celebrate the wins Lean into the mistakes Offer support Be thoughtful To show gratitude Evangelizing Fun LI Article: What's your story https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whats-your-story-write-book-kent-lewis/ Host: Nathan A Webster LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanawebster/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ndubnassociates/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/nathanawebster Website: https://ndubbrand.com  Services: https://ndubbrand.com/our-services/  Download and subscribe on Audible, Google, iHeartRadio, iTunes, Soundcloud, and Stitcher.  Please rate, review and share!

Kent Lewis from Anvil Media joined the show to talk about the mergers and acquisitions from a service-based business. Kent's article: https://www.inc.com/entrepreneurs-organization/5-strategies-for-a-successful-m-a-experience.html Kent's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whats-your-story-write-book-kent-lewis/ Host: Nathan A Webster LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanawebster/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ndubnassociates/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/nathanawebster Website: https://ndubbrand.com  Podcast Sponsor: https://ndublove.com/ Download and subscribe on Audible, Google, iHeartRadio, iTunes, Soundcloud, and Stitcher.  Please rate, review and share! Send sponsorship request to info@nwebsterllc.com. 

Director of Accounts at Webfor, Tricia Davis Payne, was able to participate in a panel of her esteemed digital marketing colleagues, hosted by SEMpdx. The title and theme of our panel was “The Future of Digital Marketing” (2022 Edition). Her fellow panelists included: Kent Lewis with Anvil Media, Anna Madill with Avenue, Mike Rosenberg with Veracity, and Shuree Jones with Rain the Growth Agency. The conversation touched on many great topics: What did we see and learn as search engine marketers in 2021? How can we help businesses be more successful in the year(s) to come? Listen in to find out about the Future of Digital Marketing (2022 Edition).

Kent Lewis from Anvil Media joined the show today. Kent and I talked about almost everything during this podcast. There's a lot going on this day in 2022. From snow, war, climate crisis, inequalities, and managing a business, the conversation only stopped because our 20 minutes were up.  Download and subscribe on Audible, Google, iHeartRadio, iTunes, Soundcloud, and Stitcher. If you enjoyed the show, please rate, review and share! Host: Nathan A Webster LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanawebster/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ndubnassociates/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/nathanawebster Website: https://ndubbrand.com    Podcast Sponsor: https://ndublove.com/

In this episode, Kent Lewis is back on for part two of NFTs.  Background podcast: Ep 45 - NFT for Marketers with Kent Lewis. Click here to listen. He offers three fundamental steps to begin the monetization of your NFT product. Host: Nathan A Webster LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanawebster/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ndubnassociates/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/nathanawebster Website: https://ndubbrand.com    Podcast Sponsor: https://ndublove.com/

The COVID-19 pandemic has undeniably changed the landscape of business in ways never predicted. Businesses have needed to change the way they do everything, from operating procedures, staffing, how it's delivered to their customer, and so much more.  In this episode, Kent Lewis from Anvil Media shares his experience.  Kent's article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/five-proven-ways-pandemic-proof-your-business-kent-lewis/.  Host: Nathan A Webster LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanawebster/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ndubnassociates/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/nathanawebster Website: https://ndubbrand.com    NDUB Gear: https://ndublove.com/

This episode is jam-packed with Metaverse goodies. Nathan has his regular guest Kent Lewis from Anvil Media to discuss the current reality of going virtual.  Marketing the Metaverse: https://thinknw.org/blog/id/69.  Host: Nathan A Webster LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanawebster/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ndubnassociates/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/nathanawebster Website: https://ndubbrand.com  Podcast Sponsor/NDUB Gear: https://ndublove.com/

Nathan starts the conversation about the marketing blunders and failures of 2021. He brings Anvil Media's Kent Lewis to discuss the various situations from a marketing perspective. Here are some of the links per the conversations: Urban Meyer: https://www.espn.com/blog/jacksonville-jaguars/post/_/id/29784/jacksonville-jaguars-owner-shad-khan-fixed-his-biggest-mistake-he-cant-afford-to-make-another-one Better.com: https://www.mysanantonio.com/business/article/Better-com-CEO-takes-indefinite-break-after-16704230.php  Jon Gruden: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2021/11/19/jon-grudens-lawsuit-against-nfl-could-force-secrets-into-open/8652420002/?gnt-cfr=1  Don't forget to support small businesses this season! Kent's suggestions were Cully Central, Mgwalexs, Yonder, and 42nd Ave Fish and Chips. https://pdx.eater.com/maps/where-to-eat-drink-in-cully-restaurants-bars

Kent Lewis from Anvil Media's Credo: https://www.business2community.com/leadership/unhappy-with-your-business-create-a-credo-0498991 Kent's Jerry McGuire Moment:  https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/2013/05/kent-lewis-jerry-maguire-moment.html Squid Games Article - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/squid-game-four-life-death-lessons-aspiring-leaders-kent-lewis/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanawebster/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ndubnassociates/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/nathanawebster Website: https://ndubbrand.com    Podcast Sponsor: https://ndublove.com/

In this episode we dive into the uses, both theoretical and practical, for NFT's in the Digital Marketing, Advertising and Corporate landscape. Kent and Brandon start with what this technology is now and what it can be into the future. Now is the time to learn about these fascinating evolutions in tech and ownership.

Kent Lewis from Anvil Media's Portland Business Journal:  https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2021/10/21/six-timeless-marketing-tactics-you-can-rely-on-in-2022.html   Host: Nathan A Webster LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanawebster/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ndubnassociates/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/nathanawebster Website: https://ndubbrand.com    Podcast Sponsor: https://ndublove.com/

From Facebook's outage for more than a few hours, in politics, and the issue of privacy and data has kept them at the forefront of controversy, but it didn't hurt their brand. Back in September 2018, Nathan and Kent Lewis from Anvil Media put out Nike Raises Brand Authencity With Colin Kaepernick. Kent was very vocal about Nike's position, and how it would benefit the shoe giant in the long run. Nike continues to dominate. Netflix's Dave Chapelle comedy "The Closer" started a controversy of entertainment, but Netflix doesn't budge. The power of the brand is bigger than people assume.    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanawebster/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ndubnassociates/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/nathanawebster Website: https://ndubbrand.com    Podcast Sponsor: https://ndublove.com/

Are you thinking about the ways you could use NFTs for your digital agency? After working in nine agencies, Kent Lewis decided to start Anvil Media in 2000, which is nowadays one of the oldest search engine marketing agencies in the Pacific Northwest that specializes in analytics, SEO, paid media, and organic social media strategy. Last year, during the NFT boom, Kent wrote a not so serious press release about this phenomenon and got the attention of companies wanted to learn how to use these one-of-a-kind digital assets. Just like that, he got into the NFT world and is developing some projects around them. Today he joins Jason to talk about what are NFTs, how some companies started using them, the possibilities to further develop their potential, and how can digital agencies get in on the action too. 3 Golden Nuggets What are NFTs? There's been a lot of talk about non-fungible tokens since their boom last year. In essence, it is is a unit of data stored on a blockchain that certifies a digital asset to be unique and therefore not interchangeable. We've seen sold for hundreds of thousands, but how can companies use them? Some early adopters saw success from selling digital items to create brand awareness (Pizza Hut selling digital pizzas, Pringles selling a golden chip). But there's still much room to continue innovating. How brands are using them. If the first step was brand engagement the future of NFTs for companies includes brand engagement and brand perception management. In this post-pandemic world of much more remote work and remote communication, it makes sense to add digital products to your offerings. The future of NFTs includes its gamification, meaning tokens, rewards, exclusive access, and more. How can agencies get in on the action? As we've seen, agencies can help their clients jump on the NFT trend to create brand awareness and engagement. But some agencies are themselves starting to use NFTs. Access to exclusive rewards is a good way to create interest in your brand. Some agencies are starting to do this by the tokenization of their time. For example, someone that gets a good deal on one of your agency's tokens could get a good deal for an hour of your time. Kent also recommends paying close attention to how Gary Vaynerchuk is innovating with NFTs. Sponsors and Resources Wix: Today's episode is sponsored by the Wix Partner Program. Being a Wix Partner is ideal for freelancers and digital agencies that design and develop websites for their clients. Check out Wix.com/Partners to learn more and become a member of the community for free. Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio | Stitcher | Radio FM Using NFTs Like Gary Vee To Create Brand Engagement Jason: [00:00:00] Hey, what's up, agency owners? Jason Swenk here and have another amazing guest for you. We're going to talk about how your agency can use NFTs. That's right. And we're going to tell his story and so you can do that. So let's go ahead and jump into the episode. Hey, Ken. Welcome to the show. Kent: [00:00:25] Pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me. Jason: [00:00:27] Yeah, man. I'm excited to have you on. So tell us who are you and what do you do? Kent: [00:00:32] So my name is Kent Lewis. I am based in Portland, Oregon since 95, you know, marketing PR background. But in 96, I got involved in the internet, started optimizing websites before Google was a thing. And I've been a part of nine agencies, founded two, co-founded two. But when I was fired the second time from an agency that I was a key manager in, I decided I'm probably unemployable. Better do my own thing. So started out in 2000 with Anvil Media, as a consultancy and started bringing in employees in 03. And have been active and keeping it a relatively boutique-sized digital marketing agency since then. And when I'm not doing the agency thing, you know, I'm trying to get outside. That's the great thing about Portland, we're an hour and a half from the ocean, from the mountains from rivers, you name it. Jason: [00:01:20] Awesome, so are you a fly fisherman? Kent: [00:01:23] My first ever fly fishing experience was on the Deschutes River in Central Oregon, about three months ago. Gal, one of my friends, she gave me the rod and said Kent, and one just keep throwing it. And I caught a least solid three and a half-inch steelhead. So I didn't eat it. It was probably good for a pizza. And I guess you could say I was maybe hooked. So I think I might try more of that later, but I'm mostly like bike cycling, snowboarding, skiing, kind of guy. Jason: [00:01:50] Very cool. We'll get along very well. That's, that's all me. That's why I live in the mountains. But, um, we're not here to talk about the mountains. Let's talk about… I'm curious, because I've been fired from almost every job. Why were you fired from that one agency? Kent: [00:02:05] Well, so the first time I was fired was an agency I co-founded in 99. And by fall of 2000 we had a disagreement about equity and our role. There were two junior folks. I was like 25, 26 at the time. And there was the founder who used his 401k to fund it and we helped grow it to three and a half million, 35 people in less than two years. But, you know, we had gone in… much as I should ran of myself, my other young partner who ran the PR side and I ran the internet side. She was like I'm going in to get more equity. Are you in? I was like, I guess, yeah, because I helped build this thing. And he was offended by that and instead of firing just her he fired both of us. And by the next week, uh, October, 2000, I created Anvil as a, as a placeholder. Interestingly, the name Anvil Media comes from an easy I'd been running for four years. I thought I'll just sell the easy for a million dollars and retire. It's still archived at @anvil-media.com, but I haven't touched it since 06. Not worth a dime now, but that team that I left in late 2000 was acquired by another agency. And then my boss, who was my mentor and, you know, it was tragic to me that we had a falling out. He died of a massive heart attack at 42. So they needed somebody to run my own team. So this old school agency asked me to take my team back over and I tripled revenue. Then, in the end, my girlfriend decided the Creative Director was more interesting than I was, even though he was married. And since he was on the board and had been there 20 years, he had a little more juice than I did and canned my ass. And then I decided I better do my own thing. So it was about a girl the second time. Actually, it was about a girl both times. The other was my business partner and she was very amazing and also made a lot of bag mistakes. And I got lumped in when she and I united. So there's a whole book there somewhere when I have the time, but it was never about my performance. It was never about my abilities. It was always about bad judgment. I'm not innocent in it so much as I picked the wrong horses. Jason: [00:03:56] Yeah, gotcha. I do want to get to how you tripled revenue later on, but I do want to get into the NFTs. So explain for some people that have… I mean, if you've been living under a rock, what an NFT is and then how can agencies use NFTs to really benefit their agency? Kent: [00:04:15] Yeah. So it's actually a great story, but I'll just answer your question directly. If we have time, I'll go into the backstory because it exemplifies the timing in my career. Um, I'm not that smart. I'm just tall male with a short name and I'm not unattractive. And I think that's been as much of my success as hard work and smarts. So NFTs. So I'd been reading about, you know, what Pizza Hut and Pringles and all these brands were messing around doing these little PR stunts, basically. Creating these little non-fungible tokens, being their little digital assets that you can own. And, you know, buy, sell, trade. And because they're probably of blockchain, you can have a whole history of that item. So brand we'll get into, you know, why it matters to marketers. But to back then, we're talking March, 2021. I was like, this seems like second life. You remember second life, the virtual world. I was consulting with HP on that like however many, 14 years ago. And I realized for the first time in career, I could be one word ahead or one sentence ahead in the book. I didn't have to write the book. I didn't have to write the chapter, I just needed to spend a little more time on it and think about it just another 30 minutes longer than my client, and then help guide them through how to create a second life experience. Same thing with, uh, it's all over again, right? The world repeats. It's a spiral and a circle, historically speaking, even in tech. I read about these non fungible tokens. You create this asset, like these virtual tacos or virtual pizzas, like Pizza Hut or these Pringle gold chips. And then people get excited because you're an early adopter, even if there's a fairly worthless asset. But it wasn't because people were reselling these on the secondary market. They got them for free and they were selling them for 10, 20, $30,000. And I was like, this sounds a lot like Bitcoin for brands. And so I wrote a press release April 1st, as I've been doing the last 15, 18 years. I write a fake press release on April every year, and this one was about NFTs and, you know, NFTs, you might know as most famous things, digital watches from Jacobson and Company or digital sneakers. And so I took the idea of a digital sneaker because we're in the backyard of Adidas America and of course, Nike and I said that these other agencies are building digital sneakers. We're 10 steps ahead where building virtual shoe boxes to story of virtual sneakers to put in a virtual closet and a virtual house that we build you just to store your digital sneakers. Just totally full of it, right? Totally riffing off of a core concept. And low and behold, a very large social media platform with a blue logo reached out to me and said, hey, we need help. We've got… We're getting a virtual sneaker build for one of their communities. And we can, would, they could tell that we're very serious about it by reading that press release. So they didn't read the press release that closely, bless their hearts. And that led to another conversation. So basically what I did is I would hopped back a second and I was like, shoot, if they're serious, then I'm serious. So I read up on it. I wrote an article that's on a website called thinknorthwest.org. It's a big ad networks for the West Coast, Portland, San Francisco. Uh, about what is NFT and why does it matter? And we can talk more about that in a second, but in the end I've been talking to three large brands, including a sneaker brand about how to use NFTs. Including one of the brands that's a big technology company with a black and white logo that basically is trying to use it for B2B. How do you get into the tech community? And can we use NFTs to incentivize behaviors for deep tech clientele. Even the OEM channel reseller channel, very complicated, convoluted, not theoretically as sexy. And I love the challenge. So I'm talking with them in an hour, then try and see if we can finalize a project. So long story short, we took this, what was a press release joke into a reality of an offering to clients. And we're having these multiple discussions with larger brands. So in the past, I've evangelized mobile marketing, video marketing, podcasting, voice search, Amazon marketing. And I evangelize it as a, with my PR background, speak about it, write about it, and then develop through my articles, a concept or a structure for a service, and then sell that service. I've done that for most of my career. And the NFT happened to start out as a joke, skeptical, healthy skepticism, that it was really something. As I did the research, I realized it's extremely powerful. Because it solves… NFTs, non-fungible tokens, unlike Bitcoin, where if there's equal value, one Bitcoin equals one bitcoin. I own one, you own one. It's the same value. And a non-fungible is a one-off item that you can pay me for with Bitcoin, but it's non-replicable. Non-scalable. And so the idea is you're, you're owning an asset for something. And that's why you can say that's 30 grand to own this. Or the meme of the fire girl, the little girl with the blazing fire out of her house. And she's staring at the camera and they sold… That gal, now that she's going into college, sold it for half a million dollars and helped fund college and gave some to charity. Just for some rich person to own the digital rights to that, right? Beeple's $69 million collage. Um, he's arguably not a good artist, but he's a first-mover developed a lot of credibility in the space and had enough of a following that some very wealthy art collector, using the term loosely, decided to get a bidding war and spend crazy money. But how does that relate to brands? So there's a couple things to keep in mind for NFTs. And that is there's, because it's blockchain, it's trackable, defensible. There's no fraud, theft, or manipulation possible with an NFT, you can create as many copies as you want. You can sell them, you can give them away. But it allows… In the end, it allows for a few different things for brands. One is just general awareness. So the things that you've seen in the, in the press related to these predominantly quick-service restaurants or manufacturers and retail, lifestyle brands, Pringles, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut… Charmin has an NFT-P as in "TP." So they're just creating brand awareness. And if you like the brand, you might love them for that, if you're technologically savvy. But what I think is the next phase, because that's really what's happening in the last year. What's happening in the next year is brand engagement brand perception management. So luxury brands are getting into it. Hoochie, Jacob & Co., like I said, Jacobs & Co. are obviously a very expensive watch brand and sold an NFT watch for $100,000. Again, fairly worthless other than to the buyer, right? So brand engagement. Uh, what I think is really the secret sauce is, and this is where it gets into the B2B world, where it can apply is in the engagement for the customer. And customer retention is using it for gamification and incentives. So tokens, loyalty reward programs, earn certain tokens. Those tokens can be exchanged for things, art, music, whatever. And so it's just a clever way to up your ante and see, be seen as a forward-looking brand or an agency that creates this stuff for clients. Because a lot of like the top shot, NBA, virtual trading cards of the top 10, most expensive trading cards of all time up there with Honus Wagner is the Dallas Maverick, right? And his car traded for almost $3 million and it's a digital card. But in my backyard, Damian Lillard with the Portland trailblazers, he's added special access to groups, discussion groups, VIP access to certain events, or just access to him. So you're getting, you're paying a premium, but you're getting something that's very exclusive. That's really what NFTs are about right now, or now is exclusivity. I think also that the next phase, which will be one plus years out would be the product extensions. Agencies helping brands create products that are natural extension of their current offerings, especially in a post pandemic world. There's a lot more of this remote work, remote communication. So creating products that are more digital and interactive, it's particularly interesting right now. And then the last component would be the tokenization of time. So as an agency, you could tokenize your time where it can be bought and sold on the secondary market. Why people might do that? Hard to say. But, uh, there's a Reuben Bramanathan who's with IDEO CoLab Ventures. He's tokenized his time. And one token is equal to one hour of his time and the guy might trade his time. He might, I might have to pay him 500 or a thousand dollars. But if I get a good deal on a token, I might save a ton of money more than likely to pay right now, paying more for a token than it's worth. And then relate to that is just creating that digital ecosystem. So when I mentioned second life, there's a new version of that. And that is, there are many of them actually, but one of them is popular. It's called Superworld, where you can own the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel tower in a virtual recreation of the world, the planet. Using satellite imagery, you could add things into that world. You can develop things like second life, but mainly if you want to say I own the Eiffel tower, you can go in Superworld and buy it. If it's not already been purchased since I last looked. The Great Wall, Taj Mahal, etcetera. Those are just some of the ways a brands are using it today. One that I glossed over that's product extension. A good example is gaming. So you've got Ubisoft has a game called Rabbits. F1 has Delta time. So what, what F1 has done well with their reality show on I think Netflix. And then this, uh, F1, uh, Delta time NFT assets related to kind of gamification of F1 is they're extending out what is a very elite wealthy following. Most people don't fly to Monaco to watch the race from a yacht, but there are other ways to interact with the brand. And F1 has mastered that. Uh, and then even Microsoft has a fairly ghetto Minecraft-like game called Azure Space Mystery. That is, um, kind of remedial, but it has, it's in the NFT world. So, um, how that relates is Fortnight, if it stays relevant for another year or two, or other games like it, you could buy and sell armor and weapons and other customizations. That's one way you can buy, sell, and trade your gear within the games would be through NFTs because of the trackability that you need to do the anti-fraud protection. And then brands can obviously create assets and then know that they've protected that asset through NFT. Jason: [00:14:41] When you're an agency partner with Wix, you unlock an entire digital ecosystem for creating, managing, and growing your agency. Get the full coding and design freedom to create anything your clients need, along with the tools to manage and collaborate with your team seamlessly from anywhere. And when it comes to growing your agency, you can get matched with new leads every day and earn revenue share for every website you guys create. They're backed by the Wix industry, leading security and site performance. You'll also have a dedicated account manager on standby 24/7. So you can reach your goals and start setting new. See for yourself, head over to wix.com/partners. And re-imagine what your agency can accomplish. Now my head's spinning, which I… with ideas. And I mean, it's just to comprehend all of this is a, a little overwhelming figuring out. But that's, it's really pretty fascinating that's where a lot of the world is actually going. And, uh, those are some great examples, you know, from F1, Microsoft, and even how some of the agencies are selling their time for NFTs. It's crazy. Kent: [00:16:02] Yeah. For now it is and it will settle down. It's, it's more profound, you know, Gary Vaynerchuk has doubled down. So if you want to figure out how does an agency monetize NFTs just look at what Gary Vaynerchuk has done with NFTs. And I've had the luxury to seen him speak twice. And I thought he was just a grade-A douche bag and nothing better. And he's far more than. In fact, I firmly believed that it's, his, his character his act and he really has a huge heart and does a lot of good things. You just wouldn't know it because he has a potty mouth, which I have no problem with. And, uh, just the way he kind of yells and preaches at people. But he has a lot of good things. I never disagree that he's a smart guy and he's on point, but he's doubling down on NFTs in ways that make me look like a troglodyte. Like I'm, you know, like, I don't get it. And he's built a whole marketplace and a bunch of assets and that's cool. Cause he can do that. Cause you know, he shouldn't even be working anymore, but he's never going to stop. So look at what he's done. If you want to see what a true agency pioneer that started out just as a small wine dealer has done, it's pretty remarkable. Jason: [00:17:00] Give us one example of what you really liked that he's doing in his agency using NFTs. Kent: [00:17:06] Well, I like that he's giving back. So with his NFT agency and I, we're going to apply cause we're doing an NFT mural fundraiser here in Portland, in September. But we can apply once we build the NFT and what do you call mint it, then we can apply. If we put it on the right, uh, marketplace and use the right technology, he can use some of the proceeds and resources he's developed with his NFT company. You know, like it basically an NFT agency to help you build something better, especially if it is for a nonprofit or cause-driven social responsibility sort of thing. And, and you can get some horsepower. So he's already built giving back into his model, which I really appreciate and admire. Look at what he's doing there. So he's not just riding the money train, he's pivoting that to provide opportunities to do social good in the process. Jason: [00:17:55] Awesome. Well, this is been very educational and, uh, and really pretty cool to listen to. What's the website people can go and, uh, check the agency out? Kent: [00:18:04] Uh, you can go to anvilmediainc.com or just Google Anvil Media. You'll find me with Anvil, Portland, anvil, Kent Lewis, whatever. And then if you just Google Kent, Kent Lewis NFT, or just go to thinknorthwest.org and their blog, you'll find my article, NFT Marketing: How brands can use NFTs to engage consumers and generate revenue. I think that's a great read. And then just also look at what Gary Vaynerchuk and NFTs looked that up and news and, um, Google search generally, and you'll find a lot of great information. Jason: [00:18:36] awesome logo. Everyone go check that out and thanks so much, Kent, for coming on the show. If you guys liked this episode, make sure you guys subscribe. Also, if you want to be around other agency owners who are on the cutting edge and they're sharing the stuff that's working and be able to see the things that you might not be able to see. I'd love to invite all of you to join our exclusive mastermind. It's called the digital agency elite. So go to digitalagencyelite.com and apply. And then if we feel that you're right for the community and the community is right for you. We'll have a conversation and see if it's, uh, uh, double-check that. And so make sure you go there now. And until next time have a Swenk day.

This week, I welcome Kent Lewis to the podcast. He is the founder and CEO of Anvil, an online marketing company founded in 2000, two years after Google officially launched as a search engine. As one of the oldest search engine marketing agencies in the Pacific Northwest, and one of the most award-winning in the United States, Anvil...

We all need to increase our marketing efforts and spend. Unfortunately, it's not just going to happen. You need a convincing argument. Anvil Media's Kent Lewis gives you some tools, data, and tips. Here's his article: https://www.smartbrief.com/original/2021/04/how-advocate-bigger-content-marketing-budget. Host: Nathan A Webster Website: https://nwebsterllc.com/podcast/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanawebster/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ndubnassociates/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/nathanawebster Podcast Sponsor: https://ndublove.com/ Download and subscribe on Audible, iHeartRadio, iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, and Stitcher. Please rate, review and share!

Welcome to the Facebook Sales Secrets podcast with me, your host, Steven MacDonald, CEO of LeadKlozer. This podcast is dedicated to helping individuals or businesses achieve greater success through the power of Facebook. Listen in as we discuss everything about Facebook marketing, from ad campaigns to lead generation.http://www.leadklozer.comIn today's episode, I interview Kent Lewis, Founder and President of Anvil Media, a widely successful digital marketing agency based in the US. In terms of digital marketing experience, Kent comes second to none, and much like our beloved comic book hero Superman, this “Kent” helps the people by sharing his knowledge on Creating Engagements That Actually Lead To Sales.http://www.leadklozer.comShow Notes:[2:07] What does “Total Engagement” mean in terms of advertising?[8:54] Personal engagement versus automated engagement.[15:26] The downside of automation in Facebook marketing.[19:09] How total engagement affects Facebook ads.[25:06] Best practices for call-to-actions.[28:16] Kent's number one tip to Facebook marketers.http://www.leadklozer.com

ABOUT THE GUEST: KENT LEWIS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER AT ANVIL MEDIAAs President and Founder of Anvil Media, Inc., Kent Lewis is responsible for managing operations, marketing and business development towards its purpose of creating meaningful impact for Anvil’s clients, community and its employees through creative problem-solving, making and leveraging connections and educating others. Under his leadership, Anvil has accumulated the following awards and recognition since inception in 2000:• Inc. 5000: Fastest growing private companies in America• Oregon Business Magazine: 100 Best Places to Work• Portland Business Journal: Oregon’s Most Admired Companies• Portland Business Journal: Fastest Growing Private 100 Companies• Portland Business Journal: Corporate Philanthropy Awards winner• Clutch: Top Pay-per-Click and SEO Agency in AmericaYou can learn more about Kent at the Anvil Media web site here:https://www.anvilmediainc.com/about/team/kent-lewis/Find him on Twitter here:https://twitter.com/kentjlewisOr find him on LinkedIn here:https://www.linkedin.com/in/kentlewis/ABOUT THE EPISODEYou don’t have to go far to find people who will give you ALL kinds of advice about how to use LinkedIn to generate business. It’s such an over-discussed concept that I always resisted the idea of having a guest talk about it on this podcast, but then along came Kent. We were having a discussion, and he said the magic words. He said, “when I look at the lead source for new business every month - because we track that - the vast majority of the time it’s from LinkedIn”So how does he do that? Kent was gracious enough to share his methodology and how that’s worked out for him over the years in this episode. It’s not the standard routine, and it’s probably not for everyone, but if you are serious about generating new business from LinkedIn, Kent is someone who has found a formula that works for him. Give a listen to the episode and see if some or all of his approach might work for you as well.0:25 - What’s the best sales advice that Kent has ever received?1:59 - What’s the worst advice that Kent has ever received?4:00 - David sets up the episode theme about LinkedIn5:06 - What categories of activity is Kent doing on LinkedIn that is leading him to convertible leads in his pipeline (hint, it’s not just one thing)?9:35 - Kent explains how he got to 20,000 followers15:37 - Kent explains how he stays within LinkedIns rules for connecting while maximizing outreach17:45 - Kent describes his 3-6 month horizon for building trust before asking for a conversation with a potential prospect on LinkedIn19:50 - Kent talks about how mindset has impacted success in business and how that same mindset impacts his approach to LinkedIn new business development21:24 - Kent talks about what he does during the 3-6 months between the time he connects with a prospect and makes his first outreach effort24:20 - Kent articulates the connection between content and pipeline27:12 - Kent talks about how a focus area for content drives multiple exposures, pipeline, and a service offering in his new business development ecosystem29:42 - Kent talks about how he incorporates outreach into his LinkedIn strategy31:04 - Where (other than LinkedIn) is the best place to connect with Kent

Special Guest: Kent Lewis NFT Marketing: How Brands Can Use NFTs to Engage Consumers and Generate Revenue https://thinknw.org/blog/nfts-anvil-media   Host: Nathan A Webster Website: https://nwebsterllc.com/podcast/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanawebster/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nathanwebster543/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/nathanawebster   Podcast Sponsor: https://ndublove.com/ =============== Download and subscribe on Audible, iHeartRadio, iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, and Stitcher.  Please rate, review and share!

Season Two Episode Seven  Guest: Kent Lewis, President and Founder at Anvil Media, Inc.  About Kent:  As President and Founder of Anvil Media, Inc., Kent is responsible for ensuring the company is living its mission and vision by managing overall corporate strategy, including operations, business development, sales and marketing.  You can learn more about Kent and reach out to him on LinkedIn here:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kentlewis/  About Anvil Media, Inc.:  Anvil is an integrated marketing agency specializing in search engine marketing, social media and analytics. Anvil's experienced team is certified, published and speaks regularly at industry events. Anvil generates a measurable return-on-investment (ROI) by understanding and solving unique marketing and business challenges.  Learn more about Anvil Media, Inc. here:  https://www.anvilmediainc.com/

As we wrap up 2020, Kent Lewis and Nathan focus on the marketing and social media platforms. Follow along with these links:  These are the Highest-Ranking Brands Among US Adults in 2020 https://www.marketingcharts.com/charts/top-brands-among-us-adults-year-ending-9-30-20/attachment/yougov-top-brands-by-brand-health-among-us-adults-dec2020 Distribution of TikTok users in the United States as of June 2020, by age group https://www.statista.com/statistics/1095186/tiktok-us-users-age/ Snapchat statistics 2020 https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/snapchat-statistics/#:~:text=Snapchat's%20key%20demographics%20are%2013,%2Dyear%2Dolds%20using%20it. Percentage of U.S. internet users who use WhatsApp as of 3rd quarter 2020, by age group https://www.statista.com/statistics/814649/whatsapp-users-in-the-united-states-by-age/

Nathan and Anvil Media's Kent Lewis 'chop it up' this week of marketing goodness, expertise, and current trends. The focus is on the marketing predictions for 2021.  Here's the article discussed to follow along: https://www.sempdx.org/blog/google/2020-digital-marketing-predictions-anvil-sempdx/

Anvil Media's Kent Lewis joins the podcast to share how the pandemic has created a new consumer. Follow along: https://www.smartbrief.com/original/2020/08/covid-19-changed-consumer-behavior-and-marketing-strategy Second link: https://www.fastcompany.com/90547627/how-covid-19-created-a-new-kind-of-consumer-in-just-90-days  

Kent Lewis, Anvil Media Portland Business Journal: https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2020/07/16/how-to-measure-client-health-as-a-service-firm.html

Kent Lewis - Portland's Digital Agency Anvil Beats The Big Agencies.Listen to how an agency owner drives business, delivers strong digital marketing opinions, and discusses how important community work is.Kent Lewis is the founder and President of Portland's Anvil Media, a small digital advertising agency. "Small" is in many ways a bad definer since Anvil drives large client business better than the mega agencies. Anvil is known for its expertise in delivering analytics, search engine, and social media marketing services.Anvil and Kent have been recognized across the universe having won recognition including Oregon Business Magazine: 100 Best Places to Work: Portland Business Journal's Fastest-Growing Private 100 Companies and Clutch's Top Pay-per-Click and SEO Agency in America. Kent was also named one of Portland's 40 under 40.Kent is the founder of pdxMindshare and SEMpdx and its Engage Marketing Conference event. His give-back genes rule.A nice thing for me… Feedspot has already recognized Advertising Stories as being a top 15 advertising podcast.

Today, we take trans-Atlantic flight for granted; jump on a plane in the early evening on the East Coast and arrive in London, Paris, or Amsterdam by sunrise.  But shortly after the Wright Brothers flew in Kitty Hawk in 1903, sights were set to reach Europe by air, and as the world was mired in World War I, this achievement became even more vital to the success of the Allies. The Navy tasked the Curtis Aircraft Company to accomplish this feat, and with help from the boat builders of the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company and Lawley & Son, a revolutionary design of a flying boat was delivered -- The NC, or the “Flying Nancies”.  In this episode we talk with retired Marine Corps pilot and small boat builder, Kent Lewis, about the merger between these great companies and their groundbreaking achievements. Listen in!

Follow along from Kent's LinkedIn article, Leading Through the COVID-19 Crisis: Lesson from Agency Leadership.

Follow along using the following link:  https://mrsocialentrepreneur.com/how-to-hire-a-marketing-company. 

Digital technology has no doubt changed the way consumers make purchase decisions. Rave reviews from friends and family on the latest supplements has now been replaced with online reviews.

Digital technology has no doubt changed the way consumers make purchase decisions. Rave reviews from friends and family on the latest supplements has now been replaced with online reviews.

To follow along, go to https://mrsocialentrepreneur.com/promoting-personal-brand-via-public-relations/. 

From PDX's Godfather of Marketing, Kent Lewis of Anvil Media. Podcast: Buy Google Ads With Kent Lewis  

Kent Lewis, Anvil Media (aka, PDX’s Godfather of Marketing) breaks down how to see on Amazon. Follow along with Kent's article. 

Kent Lewis of Anvil Media and Michael Chase of MilePost, both experienced media experts share views on the future of how people are likely to be influenced in the future, what they crave, and how to respect privacy on the road of influence. 

Follow along here --> https://mrsocialentrepreneur.com/buy-google-ads-with-kent-lewis/. 

Kent Lewis is the Founder of Portland based Anvil Media, a digital marketing agency specializing in SEO & PPC. On this episode Kent discusses his long history of podcasting & the benefits of podcasting for B2B brands.

1776 Coin Kent Lewis BTC 2019 Q1 expectations and How to avoid cryptocurrency scams and pitfalls Exposing Crypto Truth lets talk some crypto https://freedom.social/redplanet32-register Support the stream with fiat: https://streamelements.com/yourcryptodailynews/tip Support the stream with fiat: https://streamelements.com/yourcryptodailynews/tip #1776coin #kentlewiss #cryptocurrency Fort knox discord airdrops. https://discord.gg/fCaYbSY Social send rains https://discord.gg/SpARV3a https://www.x42.tech https://www.spectresecurity.io https://www.yourcryptodaily.com https://www.crackingcryptocurrency.com Discord servers Your crypto daily https://discord.gg/BGnfPQQ Fort knox https://discord.gg/nQWAkS5 (Disclaimer) we are not financial advisors , crypto currency is highly volatile you can lose some or all of your investment speak to your own Financial advisor before deciding to invest. And most importantly take responsibility for your own choices it would not be a good idea to spend the lunch money or rent money on crypto. Youve been warned! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ycdpod/support

Kent Lewis is the President and Founder of Anvil Media. He shares his story with you, along with some great insights into digital marketing for the Small Business Owner. Listen for his Jerry McGuire moment.   Kent Lewis-Passion For Small Businesses As President and Founder of Anvil Media, Inc., Kent is responsible for ensuring the company is living its mission and vision by managing overall corporate strategy, including operations, business development, sales and marketing. Kent specializes in analytics, search engine and social media marketing services, Anvil is a digital agency which provides measurable marketing that moves clients’ businesses forward. “My true passion is helping small businesses, of course the big clients pay the bills as well, but helping small businesses play against big companies and digital marketing flattens the field.” – Kent Lewis   Where Do I Start? When starting the process of marketing Kent recommends that you create a level of awareness and keep the customers engaged.  Knocking on doors for follow-up isn’t easy but necessary. Your company must have a website; most small businesses use WordPress. “While most companies focus on sales for growth, I’m suggesting focusing on delighting your current customers.” – Kent Lewis   The Three C’s Kent specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and advises that your website should include the following: Content Code Credibility Listen to this podcast where Kent explains this in detail.   Standard Best Practices Depending on your audience and goals of your business, Anvil Media is a great resource to use.  Kent and his team can assist you on your business journey and bring exposure. “Brands are built on public relations and defended by advertising.” – Kent Lewis To hear more about Kent Lewis’ business journey, download and listen to the episode!   Connect with Kent Lewis: Website Twitter Linkedin Connect with Business Owner Freedom: Website LinkedIn Facebook   If you truly enjoyed the show, don't forget to leave a positive rating and review on iTunes.  We have prepared more episodes for the upcoming weeks, so come by again next week! Thank you for tuning in to the Business Owner Freedom Podcast!   Copyright © 2018 BOFP

Banished to the digital basement: Kent Lewis recounts his exile from PR with 5 ways a marketing firm owner uses PR to grow on this episode of the PR Talk Podcast. See a full recap of the episode at www.veracityagency.com/podcast/kent-lewis/

pdxpodcast.com / anvilmediainc.comSupport the show (https://www.paypal.me/pdxpod)

Welcome to the Marketing Solar Podcast Series, hosted by Glenna Wiseman of Identity3. We are working with Energy Trust of Oregon on this Solar Marketing Training Program. It's designed to help solar contractors reduce marketing and customer acquisition costs. This podcast topic is: Tracking Results to Improve Solar Marketing.The podcast features Kent Lewis, President and Founder Anvil Media Inc. to the show again. Kent is a highly sought after speaker and marketing professional who founded Anvil Media in 2008. His company is now an award winning integrated marketing agency specializing in search engine marketing, social media and analytics. This episode of Marketing Solar includes:•Referral Solar Marketing Tips•Insights for Advocacy Solar Marketing•SEO Do's and Don'ts for Solar Marketing •Create Content “Social Signals” Google Can See•Avoid Expensive Paid Online Advertising Mistakes•Three Tips to Use Google Analytics for Actionable Website Data •Three Steps to Setting up Solar Marketing Key Performance IndicatorsWe want to thank Energy Trust of Oregon for their vision and support helping solar contractors reduce customer acquisition costs through more efficient marketing.

Welcome to the marketing solar podcast series, part of the “Build It Bright: Crafting Your Solar Marketing Program.” This solar training program is facilitated by Glenna Wiseman of Identity3 working with Energy Trust of Oregon.Today we are tackling, “Building an Online and Social Media Strategy on a Limited Budget” with Kent Lewis, president of Portland, Oregon based Anvil Media. Founded in 2000, Anvil Media, Inc. is an award winning integrated marketing agency specializing in search engine marketing, social media and analytics.In this podcast, Kent offers solar installers a rich depth of tips and insights including:•Getting Measurable Online and Social Media Marketing Results•Measuring Online Effectiveness with the Anvil Marketing Index•March 3 Webinar: Building a Social Media Strategy with Limited Resources•Developing Social Media on a Shoestring•“Facebook Loves to Change the Rules”•“Your Website is the Sun in Your Online Marketing Solar System”•Why Your Blog is More Important Than Ever•A Metrics Based Approach for Hiring Outside Marketing ResourcesWe want to thank Energy Trust of Oregon for their vision and support helping solar contractors reduce customer acquisition costs through more efficient marketing.

As President and Founder of Anvil Media, Inc., Kent Lewis is responsible for ensuring the company is living its mission and vision by managing overall corporate strategy including operations, business development, sales and marketing. Specializing in analytics, search engine and social media marketing services, Anvil is an integrated marketing consultancy which provides measurable marketing that moves clients’ businesses forward. Under his leadership since 2000, Anvil has accumulated the following awards and recognition:    Inc. 5000: Fastest growing private companies in America    Portland Business Journal: Oregon’s Most Admired Companies    Portland Business Journal: Fastest Growing Private 100 Companies (for five     consecutive years)    Portland Business Journal: Corporate Philanthropy Awards winner    Clutch: Top Pay-per-Click Agencies in AmericaWith a background in agency-side digital marketing, Lewis regularly speaks on effective digital marketing techniques & trends to audiences as a subject matter expert. Since 2000, he’s been an adjunct professor at Portland State University, where he teaches an SEM Workshop, and also toured nationwide with Online Marketing Institute as a lead instructor. Lewis also regularly contributes to industry publications including Business2Community and iMedia Connection.  As a long-time entrepreneur, he’s an investor and advisor to a host of emerging Portland-based companies, including DreamPath, Gas Anywhere, Journey Fitness, RISEcx, Syndical and Tixie and Workplace Resource of Oregon. Lewis is co-founder of a variety of organizations, including career community pdxMindShare, eROI and SEMpdx, a Portland-area professional trade association for search engine marketers. Active in his community, he’s currently involved in non-profit charity and professional trade organizations including early literacy program SMART (Start Making a Reader Today), The Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), Portland Incubator Experiment (PIE) and others.  Lewis’s industry recognition and awards include Portland Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40 Award, Top 25 Most Influential Pay-per-Click Experts and American Marketing Association Oregon Chapter Marketer of the Year in 2012 and Top 20 Digital Marketing Strategists 2015.   Ted Prodromou is America’s leading LinkedIn coach and the #1 best selling author of The Ultimate Guide to Linked In For Business. To get a free copy of his book simply register at www.tedprodromou.com. On the podcast, Ted brings together some of the top LinkedIn minds in the country to share with you how they grow their businesses using LinkedIn and how you can, too.     Powered by Seth Greene: a 6 Time Best Selling Author, Nationally Recognized Direct Response Marketing Expert, and the only back to back to back GKIC Dan Kennedy Marketer of the Year Nominee. Get a FREE Copy of Seth’s new book Podcast Marketing Magic, and access to a Live Podcast Marketing Training Webinar at http://www.UltimateMarketingMagician.com

Kent Lewis’s core tenets are to Educate, Entertain and Connect.  He’s started numerous organizations, all fitting in to at least one of these 3 core ideas.  At Anvil Media, his social media marketing agency, this means he’s organized around moving his customers’ businesses forward.  His goal is to delight and elevate (either without the other … Continue reading Purpose Podcast 011 – Kent Lewis: To Educate, Entertain & Connect