Podcast appearances and mentions of Marcus Murphy

“Jasmine, you need to take a break…”JD (my husband and business partner) said these words to me a few weeks ago.I immediately replied, “No. I need to work more. I need to do more.” (Can you relate?)It was while recording this podcast series with my co-host Marcus Murphy, I realized it wasn't the work that was keeping me from stepping away, it was the pressure of coming back and people asking what I was going to do/accomplish/create/build next.That's right, the expectations of returning kept me from taking time away to just…be.(Spoiler alert: I ended up taking the break.. AND, I put up parameters and said, “I'm taking a break without expectation and I need to do this for myself.”)In this conversation with Marcus, you'll hear me process the uncomfortableness of taking a break without knowing my next move. You'll also hear us both share candidly about how we got to where we are today, in hopes that our journeys will inspire and encourage you.Click play to hear all of this and…[00:02:02] Marcus's transition to becoming a CEO of a tech company and developing his company, The Five Percent.[00:06:04] Why Marcus believes in observing the market to build a business[00:09:33] How building your own brand helps you take control of your own circumstances and improve your organization.[00:10:18] How Marcus decided to focus on professional athletes as his niche.[00:17:24] How to create awareness around your brand, build recognition, and engage your audience.[00:18:21] What skyscrapers and athletes have in common - and how to apply it to business[00:22:04] Marcus's goal of building awareness for his business and how he plans to make this goal a reality.[00:27:23] The value of being “a sherpa” and helping others navigate their own path to success.[00:31:17] The responsibility and significance of being a minority founder in the business world.[00:33:43] My journey and challenges of transitioning from consulting to becoming a CEO.[00:42:50] Why I plan on taking a break and how I'm handling the expectations upon returning.Marcus spent the last 15 years building the foundation for a life of serial entrepreneurship. In 2020, he left his dream job as a senior member of the executive team at DigitalMarketer. He literally cried himself to sleep the night he made this decision... but it was the right one. Marcus is currently the co-founder and CEO of The Five Percent, an international community geared toward inspiring, equipping, and facilitating actionable content for emerging entrepreneurs.For full show notes visit: https://jasminestar.com/podcast/episode367 

He dropped out of college without a clear sense of direction.Then one day, while working in the “dish pit” at a restaurant, he received a call that Usher Raymond wanted to collaborate with him (cue the lyrics to Let It Burn).It was a 7-year journey of financial struggles, latte-making shifts, and uncertainty that ultimately led to exhibitions across the globe – from the USA to Australia, Hong Kong, Finland, London, Berlin, Beirut, and Shanghai.In this episode, Marcus Murphy, my co-host, and I have the privilege of interviewing Jonni Cheatwood about the business of art, the lessons he gained from more than a few mistakes along the way, and his path from college dropout to a successful full-time artist (y'all, Jonni is LEGIT - he has collaborations with businesses like Target and TedX!).Click play to hear all of this and…[00:01:05] Jonni's upbringing in a home filled with art and his early exposure to art museums.[00:05:00] Jonni's journey from taking art classes in high school to dedicating his whole life to art and his career.[00:08:59] How Jonni experimented with trying different things to discover personal passions and self-understanding.[00:11:27] How Jonni views failures as learning experiences and navigates how to find his place in the art world.[00:16:18] Jonni's early experiences with art and the start of his painting career.[00:17:08] How Jonni felt when he made his first sale and the realization that his artwork can be bought and sold.[00:20:53] The role of friends and community in Jonni's artistic journey [00:24:17] The power of painting in public [00:26:01] The process of starting a painting and the challenges of working with a blank canvas.[00:29:15] The importance of taking breaks and gaining perspective in the creative process.[00:34:54] How Jonni's painting in a Tumblr competition led to Usher reaching out to collaborate on a project.[00:39:05] The challenges Jonni faced when he moved to LA to pursue his art career and how he eventually got introduced to an artist's residency.[00:44:49] How galleries represent and advocate for artists, and the dynamics of reaching out to galleries.[00:47:18] The importance of persistence in the art world and the ability to say no to opportunities that don't serve the artist's goals.[00:49:49] The importance of seeing the process of creating art and the challenges of sharing it on social media.[00:54:06] The importance of sharing an artist's journey and experiences with the world, and the value of interviews and storytelling in the art community.For complete show notes, visit: https://jasminestar.com/podcast/episode365Jonni Cheatwood is a self-taught artist living and working in Los Angeles, California. He is known for his energetic large-scale paintings that are often characterized by their vibrant colors, bold brushstrokes, and college-like compositions. He often uses found materials in his work such as scraps of fabric and photographs. Jonni's work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in the USA, Australia, Hong Kong, Finland, London, Berlin, Beirut and Shanghai.

In this episode of The Jasmine Star Show, there are sensitive topics mentioned related to suicide, mental health struggles, and emotional distress. The content may be triggering for some listeners. If you or someone you know is currently struggling with these feelings, we encourage you to seek support from a mental health professional or call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988 in the United States. Listener discretion is advised and I hope you realize how much that YOU MATTER.Have you ever wondered what exactly makes a great work culture?There's obviously a few factors, but here's a big one: helping employees find purpose in their roles. When employees feel a sense of purpose at work and in what they do, they are more engaged, motivated, and fulfilled, leading to increased productivity and overall satisfaction.But how do you do that? In this episode, Marcus Murphy (my co-host for the next few weeks) and I interviewed Matthew Emerzian, founder and CEO of Every Monday Matters, a non-profit organization that has impacted millions of lives by providing tools, training, and resources to help everyone (especially leaders) learn how to help others realize how much they matter.As you listen to this episode, you'll learn not only HOW to show others they matter, but you'll also hear Matthew's powerful story of his mental journey and the self-transformation he experienced by way of serving others. [00:04:27] Matthew's motivation for building his personal brand after years of working behind the scenes for his nonprofit organization.[00:07:42] The common mistakes of LinkedIn messages.[00:09:57] Matthew's journey from working in the music industry to becoming a band manager.[00:21:34] How self-transformation leads to social transformation and the impact of influential people in bringing a message of purpose and fulfillment.[00:22:34] How to create a culture that values and supports employees, and the responsibility of individuals to be the change they want to see.[00:24:21] The importance of mental health and well-being in the workplace, and the need for organizations to prioritize the well-being of their employees.[00:29:00] The practical and strategic approach to culture change, starting with understanding pain points and creating a tactical plan.For complete show notes, visit: http://jasminestar.com/podcast/episode362More about Matthew Emerzian: For the past 15 years, Matthew has been on a mission to create a world where everyone embraces how much and why they matter. He is the bestselling author of four books, a highly sought-after keynote speaker, having taken the stage for Zoom, Google, Outreach, HP, Jack in the Box, Chili's, Genentech, Amgen, and more, and his work has been hailed by Oprah.com, The Today Show, Fast Company, and several other media outlets. He is also the founder and CEO of Every Monday Matters (EMM), a non-profit organization that has impacted millions of lives.  After achieving great success in the music industry as the SVP of Robert Kardashian's music marketing company and working on projects for the biggest artists in the world, including U2, Avril Lavigne, Coldplay, and more, Matt woke up on a Monday morning with a massive panic attack that turned into chronic anxiety and depression. Realizing everything he thought mattered actually didn't, he set out on a journey to rediscover his life's purpose and why he matters. Matt realized that mattering is at the heart of everything and developed The Mattering Mindset™— a methodology that has transformed countless lives, organizations, and communities.

How do you feel when you hear the term “paid ads”?I'm guessing that you feel one of two ways. Overwhelmed thinking about pouring money into something that may not pay off.Liberated at the thought of marketing passively to the right people.And either way is completely valid! There are numerous approaches to business and content creation and you have to choose what works best for you and YOUR business. This is why Marcus Murphy (my podcast co-host for the next few weeks) and I invited marketing guru Billy Gene on the show to share his methodology on strategic marketing (which is completely different from mine!)In this episode, Billy shares his step-by-step strategy of creating high-quality content pieces and strategically turning them into paid ads to reach a larger audience. And the best part? Even if you've never ran paid ads before, Billy breaks down exactly what he would do if he were new to ads. (Thanks Billy!)But Billy doesn't stop there. He also shares about the importance of setting boundaries and saying no to opportunities that don't align with his vision. (In fact, he's a MASTER at this…he turns down $50,000 speaking opportunities if it doesn't feel in alignment with them!).Click >>PLAY

Have you taken a leap of faith that felt scary at the time, but you just KNEW it was what you needed to do?In this episode, my friend (and podcast co-host for the next few weeks) Marcus Murphy shares his journey from the days when he was broke and in the trenches to leaving his dream executive job to become an entrepreneur.Marcus and I go way back (like, I photographed his wedding) and one thing I love about him is that he is as real and vulnerable as it gets.You'll hear stories about asking (and getting denied) for a raise at one of his jobs, realizing when he hit a ceiling in his career, and how he decided to keep pursuing his dreams when others thought he “had enough.”.Since Marcus left his executive role in 2020, he has founded six businesses and become a member of the advisory board at Linkedin.Click play to hear all of this and…[00:00:01] The story of my friendship with Marcus Murphy, my podcast co-host for the next few weeks.[00:02:00] The email Marcus sent me over 10 years ago asking me to shoot his wedding and the evolution of our friendship.[00:07:03] Marcus' growth and journey from struggling to successful entrepreneur.[00:09:40] Marcus' career trajectory when he was working at Yelp and how he started speaking and training.[00:12:43] A pivotal moment for Marcus at Yelp and how it led him to pursue a new job at Infusionsoft[00:14:03] Marcus' experience at a company with a dream coach and a unique company culture.[00:16:01] How Marcus felt about being asked to do a presentation on the spot during his interview and how he handled it.[00:22:00] Marcus' experience the first time he met Ryan Deiss at a business event and his immediate desire to work with him.[00:24:25] How Marcus became friends with Ryan Deiss and eventually transitioned to working at Digital Marketer[00:27:16] Marcus' role at Digital Marketer.[00:29:51] Why Marcus left his dream job as a Digital Marketer and started consulting[00:33:33] Marcus' process of developing the idea to start a media company[00:34:24] Why Marcus and I are co-hosting this podcast series[00:34:48] The challenges and benefits of being okay with imperfections and how they relate to our personal growth.For complete show notes, visit: http://jasminestar.com/podcast/episode359Marcusspent the last 15 years building the foundation for a life of serial entrepreneurship. In 2020, he left his dream job as a senior member of the executive team at DigitalMarketer. He literally cried himself to sleep the night he made this decision... but it was the right one. Marcus is currently the co-founder and CEO ofThe Five Percent, an international community geared toward inspiring, equipping, and facilitating actionable content for emerging entrepreneurs.

Sometimes seemingly small changes in study efforts can result in big differences in learning gains. John and Jared are going to give you tips and insights into things you can do to get more out of the time you're studying Chinese, including flashcards, reading in Chinese, preparing for speaking situations, and learning grammar and vocab. Guest interview is with Marcus Murphy who after deciding to study Chinese in college, ended up spending years in China and today is a Chinese language instructor in Tennessee. Links from the episode:The Prince and the Pauper | Level 1 Chinese Graded ReaderSummer Chinese Language Camp | University of the SouthSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Do you feel like you're wasting time posting on LinkedIn and getting little to no responses? Or have you experienced the thrill of a viral post that led to a bigger opportunity than you'd ever dreamed of? This week, we pulled our second most downloaded podcast episode of all time featuring Marcus Murphy. He talks about: The single most important strategy to win on LinkedIn, How one article led Marcus Murphy to become the only “salesperson” on LinkedIn's Advisory Board, How he caught the attention of Ryan Deiss where he was then hired as the Director of Monetization at DigitalMarketer.com His secrets to landing some of the biggest partnerships in business today from Grant Cardone to Salesforce, Billy Gene, and more! Ready to jumpstart your Linkedin strategy to get high-paying clients? Tune in to the episode now! It's the best 15 minutes you'll ever spend on how to be successful on LinkedIn. Enjoy! Connect with us: https://www.Instagram.com/UltimateSalesMachine https://www.Facebook.com/UltimateSalesMachine https://www.Twitter.com/ChetHolmes https://www.Linkedin.com/company/chetholmesint

In this episode, we interview sales and marketing expert, Marcus Murphy. Marcus has more than 10 years' experience in sales and marketing at several different companies. He is also an AMAZING public speaker. (If you've ever been to the largest marketing conference in North America, Traffic & Conversion Summit, you've likely seen Marcus up on stage. Sherry has been a speaker at T&C for three years and had the opportunity to meet up with Marcus at this year's Traffic & Conversion Summit!) Throughout his marketing career, Marcus has worked with some of THE biggest names in marketing – including world-renowned marketing expert Ryan Deiss at Digital Marketer. In The Marketing Plan Podcast Episode 7: Simplifying Marketing to Get Results with Marcus Murphy, Marcus has outdone it! He gives you in-depth advertising advice on a variety of marketing strategies --things that will help you get into the minds of your customers AND help position your company, products and services through your messaging and various other marketing strategies. Marcus and Sherry chat about how marketing should be simplified. According to Marcus, marketing has three main “constants”: First, the market itself. Your customer -- the avatar. Second, the message. And the third constant in marketing is where your customers are at and what media you should use to get your message in front of them. He then shares more details… They also discuss customer avatars – and Marcus's idea of “avatars” are not what you think! You need to understand personality traits and human behavior, so you can craft the perfect messages for your prospective customers. (If you miss this part, the avatars you're currently creating have BIG AS$ gaps!) When it comes to successful marketing strategies, great copywriting is SO important. Marcus discusses how important content and copywriting is to creating a great story that resonates with your prospects. Being able to write content that attracts your future customers is key – without that, you're spinning your wheels. You'll also find out Marcus's thoughts on B2B vs. B2C. This alone is worth a listen! (Hat tip to Ryan Deiss for this one!) You'll also discover why market research is SO important. To get that information about your customers, you need to be curious about your buyers. Marcus tells about the importance of speaking less and listening more – and even more strategies you can use today! Additionally, as a member of the LinkedIn Advisory Board, he shares some great LinkedIn tips on how to build relationships on LinkedIn. You should humanize yourself and your interactions on LinkedIn – if you're not doing that, you're turning off the connections you're trying to make. Think it's too late to get in on LinkedIn marketing and stake your claim? Find out what Marcus thinks on that topic. (You'll be surprised!) This episode is SO rich with marketing concepts and ideas, we go deep to the bottom of the ocean. Hope you enjoy! Watch the Episode On Our YouTube Channel! https://youtu.be/M688Mqs67SE (The Marketing Plan Podcast YouTube Channel) How to Reach Marcus: https://thefivepercent.com/ (https://thefivepercent.com/) Email: marcus@thefivepercent.com (NOTE: Do NOT spam Marcus. We love him – so only email him if you have a REAL question for him, please.)

The CEO MASTERY SHOW: EPISODE 22 How to Win BIG Clients on LinkedIn with Marcus Murphy Subscribe to this podcast for more advice on growing faster, better, smarter! In this episode, we'll talk about: - The single most important strategy to win on LinkedIn, - How one article led Marcus Murphy to become the only “salesperson” on LinkedIn's Advisory Board, - How he caught the attention of Ryan Deiss where he was then hired as the Director of Monetization at Digital Marketer, - His secrets to landing some of the biggest partnerships in business today from Grant Cardone to Salesforce, Billy Gene, and more! FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL: https://www.Instagram.com/UltimateSalesMachine https://www.Facebook.com/UltimateSalesMachine https://www.Twitter.com/ChetHolmes https://www.Linkedin.com/company/chetholmesinternational/ Website: http://www.chetholmes.com

It's hard to believe I haven't even known Marcus for a year yet. What started as a unsolicited outreach by me to Marcus, via LinkedIn, has turned into what I believe will be a life-long friendship.Marcus has accomplished so much at such a young age, but throughout the journey also had to relearn what matters most to him...his family. He has an uncanny way of seeing and creating opportunities that help both some of the largest companies in the world and also individuals like myself. The work I did with Marcus changed me by helping me better understand myself, which happens to be the same person I so intentionally want to help. "We are Noah's walking home together."Join us as we talk about:Identity and growing up in a bi-racial familyNot being black enough or white enoughAlmost losing the thing that matters most to himHow building a play house for his girls changed everything The power of forgivenessConnection is everythingGet ready to enjoy this super rich conversation that covers so many important human topics.About MarcusMarcus Murphy is a business expert who cares deeply about the flourishing and success of entrepreneurs. He previously worked for Yelp in San Francisco, going from start-up to a multi-billion dollar giant. He sits on the advisory board at Linkedin and is a sought after speaker and trainer to LinkedinLearning's more than 22 million students. Marcus worked at Keap as the Global Partner Development Manager where he developed and broadened new international markets throughout Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Marcus was a senior member of the executive team at DigitalMarketer and is widely known for his business partnerships with people and brands like Tony Robbins, Daymond John, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Linkedin. Marcus is a speaker with keynotes at conferences like INBOUND, Hypergrowth, Dreamforce, Social Media Week, ICON, Digital Sales and Marketing Day, and many more. He is also the host of Traffic and Conversion Summit and Affiliate Summit, boasting more than 20,000 attendees between them. Marcus is currently the co-founder and CEO of The Five Percent, an international community geared toward inspiring, equipping, and facilitating actionable content for emerging entrepreneurs.  On a more personal note Marcus is a husband to his beautiful and talented wife Gina and their two amazing daughters Florence and Pearl.Social:  LinkedIn 

Nobody helps people build the life they want and achieve their dreams like the woman Oprah called “the thought leader of the next generation.”   In today's episode, Marcus Murphy sits down to talk with renowned marketer and business mentor, Marie Forleo. Marie is an entrepreneur, #1 New York Times bestselling author, and host of the award-winning show MarieTV and The Marie Forleo Podcast, with millions of adoring fans worldwide. Marie firmly believes that each person's uniqueness is what makes them beautiful. “Your heart is the strongest thing you have in your business,” she says. “Don't ever hide it.”   Listen in to hear Marie's brilliant (and hilarious) thoughts on building a brand, connecting with your ideal customers, and infusing your marketing with more humanity.   IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN: Why you shouldn't try to be everywhere and everything to everyone. Why (and how) to repurpose and recycle old content The single most important thing you can do when it comes to marketing Two global trends we absolutely have to pay attention to right now   LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: marieforleo.com connect with Marie on IG timegenius.com flytographer.com   OUR PARTNERS: Generate leads and improve sales with automated chatbots from Bot Builders FREE trial of email and SMS marketing with Sendlane Find out your Leadership Trust Score at Ready to Lead.   Thanks so much for joining us this week. Want to subscribe to The DigitalMarketer Podcast? Have some feedback you'd like to share? Connect with us on Apple Podcasts and leave us a review!   Mentioned in this episode:[Free Download] DigitalMarketer's Canva Holiday Promo PackGrab These 195 Ready-To-Use Canva Templates For 5 Upcoming Holiday Promotions!Holiday Promo PackGenerate Leads on Instagram via AutomationLearn how to make money with automated bots even if you don't have a business or product! Visit https://botwebinar.com

Marcus Murphy And JT Copper of Men's Soccer With Darek (from Bulls Beat 8-10) by USF

Marcus Murphy - 5 - 11 - 21 by ESPN Coastal

I see two kinds of people on LinkedIn: the ones who provide tons of value and those who are “buy from me” people. Which one are you? The second-part of the Pin To Top Podcast interview with Marcus Murphy, is full-packed of LinkedIn learning. If you have been neglecting LinkedIn for the longest time, this could be the opportunity for you to take a second look on LinkedIn and stop treating it as your “online resume.” For a full-packed LinkedIn Learning, you may check out Marcus’ “Craft an all-star LinkedIn profile” on Digital Marketer and Linkedin Learning’s “Intro Marketing on LinkedIn." Connect with Marcus Murphy at https://www.morethanacloser.com/ (MoreThanACloser).

You don’t know how happy I felt when Marcus Murphy, CEO of The Five Percent and a LinkedIn Advisory Board Member, said YES to a Pin To Top Podcast interview. He’s the first person from LinkedIn that I had for the show, so I think I started it off, right? In this first of the two-part interview, Marcus talked about leaving a dream job to start his own company (he’s Digital Marketer’s Head of Partnerships), marketing and sales, and how is his children’s beautiful playhouse. (That last one’s a MUST listen if you are a parent.) Connect with Marcus Murphy at https://www.morethanacloser.com/ (MoreThanACloser.)

Bob Butehorn and Marcus Murphy with Darek (from Bulls Beat 2-4) by USF

In the Season 1 finale of The Kingdom At Work Podcast, Micah McElveen of Vapor Ministries shares a personal story of how the Lord called him into a life of Kingdom Obedience. Dr. Marcus Murphy follows Micah’s words by laying a Biblical foundation with examples of Kingdom Obedience.

Email is not dead. The phone is not dead. Yet so many sales teams but all their eggs in the LinkedIn basket. It's the person and their content connected to the email and phone that's broken. Although sales processes have shifted with new tools, the opportunity in understanding how to structure outreach in a way that gets people to want to engage with you in a conversation hasn't.Join Marcus Murphy, the CEO of The Five Percent and Board of Advisor member to LinkedIn, in a conversation around building sales teams from scratch and making the most of LinkedIn.Show notes:When you're coming in to build a brand new sales team at a company that's never had one, you have to understand and fall in line with the momentum they've already built. And you have to find a way to amplify what already works. Email is not dead. The phone is not dead. It's the person and their content connected to the email and phone that's broken. You're doing yourself a disservice if you don't see the value of LinkedIn with your people and how they're using it. Engaged/open conversations is a great KPI for LinkedIn InMail as opposed to an automated spray and pray model. Send 20 personalized, intentional, targeted messages that are going to result in a much bigger response than 100 automated ones. If you've taken yourself out of the teacher role, then you are killing your team slowly. If you're growing out of cash capital, then you have to home grow your talent. Take high performers in the customer support team and graduate them into an MDR, SDR, BDR type roles, working them into being a well-rounded senior account executive. If you're growing a team from scratch, be the first person that goes through the sales process so you create a wash and repeat process. Be mindful that if you are senior in your sales role, there are tactics you may try that are not repeatable for someone less polished and experienced. The sales process is shifting, however there are some tools in your inside sales playbook that have remained the same such as a CRM to organize your current customers and potential. Zoom, chat, LinkedIn and some type of outreach software should be investments for your sales processes if they're not already there.Followup tends to be the least amount of effort and energy exercised by a sales leader, but it seems to be one of the most beneficial and crucial parts that leaders constantly overlook. If you're going to be a thought leader, be a thought leader in what your prospective customer cares about. Good thought leadership focuses on answering questions for the customer and addressing pain points. Having a personal brand is only helpful if you have built a large enough platform that you have more credibility to introduce your reps and your people to conversations that they normally would just get rejected on. The same things that make you really competitive, and make you a successful sales leader, are also the same things that have this ability to unleash the darkness that's in you, and you've got to do the work to keep that in check.For links and resources, visit https://nigelgreen.co/revenue-harvest/

Two Australian artists behind Melbournes emerging Dilate brand, Leroy Moeller and Marcus Murphy have come together as OXYGN to gift Monument with its 281st Podcast instalment. Together their ideas combine, sharp percussive shapes and sculptured electronic sounds into natural rhythm that will guide us through the hour. Enjoy. Read More: https://mnmt.no/magazine/2020/12/10/mnmt-281-percussive-shapes-and-sculptured-electronic-sounds-by-oxygn/ https://soundcloud.com/oxygndilate

In Episode 9, Casey Brewer, speaks from past experience on how someone in his life used their "Kingdom keys" to unlock what God placed in him. After Casey expands on the subject of "Kingdom Keys," Dr. Marcus Murphy lays a Biblical foundation.

In “Kingdom Authority: Part 2,” Betenbough Homes President, Cal Zant describes how the Lord opened his eyes to things he had never seen before. We dig deeper into receiving authority and discerning how to use it. We'll follow this discussion with more teaching on Kingdom Authority from Dr. Marcus Murphy.

In “Kingdom Authority: Part 1,” Rick Betenbough speaks about standing up in our Kingdom Authority and seeing transformation come. Dr. Marcus Murphy follows with laying a Biblical foundation on the topic of Kingdom Authority.

In “Kingdom Authority: Part 1,” Rick Betenbough speaks about standing up in our Kingdom Authority and seeing transformation come. Dr. Marcus Murphy follows with laying a Biblical foundation on the topic of Kingdom Authority.

Special guest, Keith Toogood of Toogood Built Homes and BOOM Ministries, joins us as we continue the discussion of "Kingdom Identity." Dr. Marcus Murphy also provides Biblical teaching to support this topic.

In part one of "Kingdom Identity," we hear from Holly Betenbough as she challenges us to make a choice whether or not to accept God's identity for us or strive to find our own. Then, Dr. Marcus Murphy expands on the Biblical truths behind our Kingdom Identity.

When God called Rick Betenbough to step away from his role as president of Betenbough Homes and pass it on to someone else, Kingdom Anointing happened. Listen to Rick's personal story, followed by Biblical teacher, Marcus Murphy, unpacking the topic of Kingdom Anointing.

In part two of "Kingdom Advancement," Rick Betenbough challenges us to look around at the people we are leading and ask ourselves if we are bringing them up to the Lord for His purposes. Dr. Marcus Murphy follows up with more biblical teaching.

In the debut episode of Season 1 of the Kingdom At Work Podcast, Rick Betenbough gives real-life application to the topic of Kingdom Advancement, followed by teaching by Dr. Marcus Murphy.

In this intriguing episode, Chris is joined by Marcus Murphy, the Head of Partnerships at the DigitalMarketer to discuss and share his journey from playing soccer to where he is today tasting the essence of success. Through his story Marcus shares how playing soccer helped him and gave him a competitive nature. Marcus will also widely speak of being creative when it comes to marketing.  Don’t forget to subscribe to the Operation Agency Freedom podcast to stay up-to-date about the best ways to own your agency: https://dudeagency.io/category/podcast/

Marcus Murphy is the Digital Marketer’s Director of Monetization, and LinkedIn Advisory Board Member who was able to build an “All-Star” level profile that can grow and develop not only the business but boost the personal brand as well. In this episode, Marcus discusses the current global situation and how we can respond, pivot, and get our businesses back to normal. Show Notes: Who is Marcus Murphy on a personal note? [1:30] It’s the global feeling of the pandemic today [2:43] How do you think the landscape will change for the good from all this? [6:40] What do you think some of the biggest opportunities are right now? [13:00] After quarantine, it’s “getting back to normal” campaign [18:48] The different approaches of businesses in working from home [20:54] Some people can create an online culture [23:18] How can businesses with traditional retail-model pivot and adapt? [25:12] Why should people spend money on becoming known when it can't be monetized right now? [29:58] How did sales change right now? [33:16] Go wide vs go deep [37:15] What is the best way to do prospecting on LinkedIn? [39:46] What are some of the lessons you’ve learned? [54:10]

Are you ready for things to get a bit awkward? This episode is hands down the most embarrassing episode that I have released *and that's saying a lot!* I’m usually the one critiquing accounts, but the tables have turned my friend. *Grab your marshmallows and skewers* because I am basically roasted and toasted by my good friend, Marcus Murphy, on a platform that I feel a little insecure about….LinkedIn.In this interview with Marcus shares about why business owners need to be on LinkedIn and what best practices to use, including: How to change your mindset How to clean up your profile in 5 steps How to build a brand on LinkedInHow to create a successful account Boo boo I’m telling you, I got the complete Cinderella makeover after this. I seriously took it to heart and with the help of my team we revamped my account. If you want to see what my before and after looks like visit www.jasminestar.com/podcast/episode54. Click play to hear why more than 675 million people on this platform and why you need to be too. I can’t wait to see you on LinkedIn, boo!

About Marcus: A recognized instructor and speaker at LinkedIn, Marcus Murphy cares deeply about the flourishing of fellow sales experts and entrepreneurs.Currently, he's Head of Partnerships at DigitalMarketer.com, which arms its ‘insiders' with strategic insights from industry experts, while also providing templates, tools and swipe files to help you become a better marketer.Marcus previously worked for Yelp in San Francisco, going from start-up to multi-billion dollar giant. He's also honed his expertise at Infusionsoft as Global Partner Development Manager. There, he developed and broadened new international markets through strategic partnerships.When not at work, he's either spending quality time with wife, Gina, and his daughters – or he's working out!So, Why LinkedIn…? What makes LinkedIn such a unique opportunity right now? The answer to that is – basically – there are 675 million people on the platform.Additionally, organic reach across other social platforms is essentially dead, while LinkedIn still excels at this. Why? Because its algorithm loves engagement.Start having conversations on there to up your engagement, and the platform will show these posts to more people. This, in turn, motivates yet more users to get involved in your conversation.If your content is not starting the right conversations with potential connections, then it's just noise, a distraction, a therefore a waste of your time.In short… content is King. Optimize your LinkedIn Profile to Start ConversationsThe three initial motivators for people to connect with you and your brand on LinkedIn are: your profile picture, your header image, and your byline/title. So, make them count.You have a unique opportunity in your profile photo right away. If possible, invest $50 in the headshot. Do it 60% of the frame against a clean background.More importantly, Marcus says…“Make sure you're not Catfishing people with your 1989 headshot… It's tough to have integrity built and trust built into that.”If potential connections see your photo and what you have positioned yourself as – plus, if you ask a question in your ‘Summary‘ – then there's your conversation starter.Always remember…Everything on your profile should be driven to start conversationsGet a good professional headshot that takes up 60% of the frameOptimize your headline to start a conversation – and be specificUse your Summary to hook the visitor; sell your story, share what you're about / what your mission isPut a call to action in your Summary, invite people to join your journey If you do those things, then you're better prepared to be part of the massive growth that's happening on LinkedIn right now. Personal LinkedIn Profile and Brand Page RelationshipChances are, if you're an agency owner on LinkedIn, you have both a personal profile and a business page. Now, how can you actually leverage and create momentum by using both? As Marcus says…“You gotta have a business page, you have to have a showcase page, and you have to have a website as a business – because everybody wants to see that you are who you say you are. They want to have those integrity pieces and something to anchor to.”Below is a strategy behind utilizing those assets together.Use your business page as the anchorThe business page is designed to inform what your business is aboutPost content and updates, but don't expect it to drive organic growthPay to boost content that is doing well organicallyYour personal page will drive the growth of your business pageYour personal page should be used to generate ‘reach', while your business page will provide conversion (i.e. website visits) and build buyer confidence.Optimizing Content for Organic Reach on LinkedInLet's talk core strategies to consider when trying to optimize the content you're posting on LinkedIn to obtain organic reach / drive results.Every piece of content Marcus generates is put through the lens of who Digital Marketer is as an organization. You need to create a ‘Character Diamond' highlighting what your agency excels at, and then what balances that. Or, to put it another way…“No one would like Superman if there was no Kryptonite and he wasn't a nerd – because none of us can fly, and we'd think he's an asshole – ‘Oh, he's flying again, well, screw that guy!' We are marketing savants at Digital Marketer, but we are also highly irreverent and that's a good balance; it helps people to go ‘Oh, these guys are really smart – but they're human beings'.”In order to optimize your content for organic reach on LinkedIn, and therefore boost your ‘connections' above 500 and beyond…Be authentic with your content; don't be too staunch on LinkedInBuild a Character Diamond for yourself and your personal brandAsk yourself how your content can start conversations…Comments trump ‘likes', and are heavily weighed in organic reachResponding to comments is tremendously importantConsistency and quality content is keyEngage and comment on posts written by people who have a big followingAgain, it's advantageous to have more (and more) people engage with, and comment on, the post as it takes it so much further. Specific LinkedIn Tips for the Agency OwnerSo, you're running an agency, you've got a small team, and looking at LinkedIn as the next channel you want to double down on. What's the execution plan?Have a client profile. Who's your ideal? Ask yourself where they live, what do they care about?Ensure clarity about who your audience is and what kind of content they would get value fromTry decipher/preempt the issues that ‘your people' are trying to solve, then go create content to resolve said issuesNail your strategy for LinkedIn, and then productize that strategy for your clients – do it for themAs an agency owner, you should be exceptional at this so you can advise your clientsBy way of summary; it's great to be professional on LinkedIn, but also bring it down to a human level.Take a “buyer first” approach and simply try to be helpful; the million dollar question for a potential client is usually something simple like “What can I help you with right now?”Lastly, don't be afraid to connect them to someone who may be a better fit! Want to see more of Marcus? Follow him @…LinkedInTwitterdigitalmarketer.com/Did you learn anything new from this episode? If so, let us know in the comments below – we value your feedback! Our next instalment of #APP, on May 27th, will see us chat with Alex Glenn. To view our previous blog with Chris Badget, make your way here… Agency Profitability Tool KitIf you're looking for more resources to help you improve your agency's profitability, then check out the Agency Profitability Tool Kit – it's full of the same templates and checklists we've used with consulting clients to help them improve their profitability by over 100% in under 60 days.

In this week's episode of the podcast, a dude I've fan-boyed about for awhile agreed to come in and knocked it out of the park. Marcus Murphy is the Head of Strategic Partnerships for DigitalMarketer and is a total stud. He and the team at DM have stepped up huge throughout COVID-19. This episode was recorded pre-crisis, but it's still exceptionally powerful. Marcus shares his journey to a full career, the daily disciplines of his faith that help keep him ground, and a powerful story of obedience and humility that has led to restoration. /// www.GrownManProject.com /// --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/grownman/message

On this week’s episode, Daniel Harmon chats with Marcus Murphy, Head of Partnerships and Business Development at DigitalMarketer. Marcus shares about getting into his career without a strong academic background, the importance of focusing on your strengths, and networking on LinkedIn vs. in-person networking.00:23 The stigmas around being a salesperson01:34 Marcus’ background and being “still poop.”06:24 The skill of business development and relationships09:05 Getting focused on your own skills11:37 Travel and upcoming plans with DigitalMarketer12:58 A mission to double 10,000 businesses14:05 LinkedIn vs. in-person networkingYou can find links for all the other places to get in touch with Marcus below. If you’re interested in learning more about Harmon Brothers go to harmonbrothers.comDon’t forget to like, subscribe, and share. Episodes published every Tuesday at 6 am EST. We’ll see you on the next one.Find Marcus Murphy and DigitalMarketer here:https://digitalmarketer.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusamurphy/https://www.linkedin.com/learning/instructors/marcus-murphy

How do the world's best marketers and salespeople use LinkedIn? This week on The Inbound Success Podcast, DigitalMarketer Head of Partnerships Marcus Murphy takes a deep dive on LinkedIn and shares his tips for using the platform to effectively connect and start conversations with your audience. In addition to his work at DigitalMarketer, Marcus also teaches the "Intro to Marketing on LinkedIn" course on LinkedIn Learning and is a member of LinkedIn's customer advisory board for LinkedIn sales solutions.  When it comes to LinkedIn, Marcus really knows what he's talking about, and he shares all of his tips in this episode. Highlights from my conversation with Marcus include: Marcus joined DigitalMarketer after helping companies like Yelp and InfusionSoft (now Keap) scale and build out partner programs. He is an avid user of LinkedIn and teaches a training course on how to get the most out of it. While most online LinkedIn trainings focus on how to optimize your profile, Marcus says the key to success on LinkedIn is all about the content you create. There are about 9 billion content impressions a week on LinkedIn and that content is driven by about 1% of LinkedIn's user base. Marcus recommends that you begin by using your profile summary to tell your story and start a conversation (check out his profile for a great example of this) rather than simply list the places you've worked. When it comes to creating content on LinkedIn, Marcus says not to wait until you have the perfect post. Share what you're thinking, ask a question, or ask for help. These are all great ways to start a conversation. You also don't need to come up with something new to say every time. Some of the biggest thought leaders on LinkedIn (think Gary Vaynerchuk) have been saying the same thing for years and it is their consistency that makes their message so powerful. Marcus says to find one tip that you think is useful, and go and implement it. Don't try and do everything at once. When it comes to posting things on LinkedIn, Marcus recommends using whatever format (text, video, pictures, etc.) makes the most sense given your content, but he did say that text-only posts seem to be performing particularly well right now. He doesn't think it hurts post performance to include links in the post itself, but he strongly advises against including more than one link as it can get very confusing. Marcus likes to use emojis to convey tone in his LinkedIn posts, but warns against their overuse. LinkedIn gives users the option of setting the button in their profile to say either "follow" or "connect." Marcus says you should have it say "connect" until you have a very strong following and then you can determine if it makes sense to switch it over. He does not advise connecting with every single person who sends a request - instead, he says you should look at the context of the connection request and engage with the people you want to have conversations with.  LinkedIn is introducing a number of new features, such as newsletters, and Marcus says to be on the lookout for more episodic content in the future. Resources from this episode: Visit the DigitalMarketer website Learn more about DigitalMarketer's event Traffic & Conversion Summit Subscribe to the DigitalMarketer blog Connect with Marcus on LinkedIn (tell him you heard him on The Inbound Success Podcast!) Listen to the podcast to learn how Marcus has mastered LinkedIn for sales and marketing - and how you can, too. Transcript Kathleen Booth (Host): Welcome back to the Inbound Success Podcast. I'm your host, Kathleen Booth, and this week my guest is Marcus Murphy who's the head of business development and partnerships at DigitalMarketer. Welcome, Marcus. Marcus Murphy (Guest): Hey. Thanks for having me. Marcus and Kathleen recording this episode. Kathleen: I am psyched to have you here. You are like my LinkedIn guru. I've been following you on with what you do on LinkedIn, and then I see that you're on LinkedIn's Customer Advisory Board. You're teaching classes. You are like Mister LinkedIn these days. Marcus:You know what's kind of funny? I fell into it, because honestly I loved the platform when I was way back in the day when it was kind of like just for your resume. I was like, "Wait a minute. I can start sharing stuff, connecting with people," and now it's my pipeline. So, it was way back in the day when I was a sales guy, and then now still a washed up sales guy, but I use it now for way more than that, like content distribution. Being on the board, I get to see some fun tools. So, yeah, I'm all in. I'm super in. About Marcus Murphy and DigitalMarketer Kathleen:That's so cool. I can't wait to just pick your brain about this topic. LinkedIn is my favorite platform as well. It's the one I'm the most active on. But before we do that, if there is anybody out there who's listening and maybe doesn't know who you are or isn't following you on LinkedIn or isn't familiar with DigitalMarketer, can you talk about your story, what you do, what DigitalMarketer is, and just how you got to where you are today? Marcus:Yeah, absolutely. It's a fun story. My wife and I got married in 2009, so we just celebrated 10 years of marriage, which was pretty cool. Kathleen:Happy anniversary. Marcus:Thank you. Went to Italy and literally I'm trying to get rid of all that weight we gained over there. But, yeah, basically we were like ... Man, we did something crazy. We got married. We started it a company, and we moved from New York to Phoenix, Arizona for no reason at all, didn't know anybody, but kind of ran that company for six years and then finally sold it, because my wife was like, "You know what? We want to start a family. Why don't you think about maybe joining another company? It'd be a little easier for us." So, we did that. I joined a little company, like a little startup called Yelp at the time, and I immediately kind of start to rise through there. I was in sales, account management. Then I became national trainer there and a bunch of different stuff. I left that go join another small company at the time called Infusionsoft and went through that growth period, which was cool, with them as their partner development manager, so to build out their channel sales. Then there, I met this guy who ... I was speaking somewhere, and I met this little guy. I saw him, and it was really funny. They were like, "That's Ryan Deiss," and I was like, "Yeah, whatever. I don't care." Kathleen: Who's that dude? Marcus: I don't care who that is. There was a huge crowd around him, and I didn't really want to meet him. I saw him speak on stage, and I was like, "Man." I went home that night. It was probably 2:00 in the morning back home. I was in London at the time. I remember telling my wife, "I think I found the guy I want to work for. I think I just saw him. He blew my mind." So, just so happened to be that Infusionsoft had a partnership with DigitalMarketer, and they put me in charge of that strategic partnership, which was really cool. So, I flew down here. Ryan and I became friends. We spoke together, did some initiatives together, did some deals together. Then when this idea of DigitalMarketer needs to build out a kind of customer-facing sales team, partner program, customer success care, they needed all of that, and they were looking for somebody to build it. I remember seeing that job description and texting Ryan. I was like, "What do you think?" He was like, "Absolutely not." I think he didn't want to ruin our friendship, but I also I was kind of like forbidden fruit, being that I worked for a company that was kind of a partner. He's like, "You'd have to get your C suite to say yes to that," so I literally got my C suite to say yes. I walked in, and this is actually to Clate's benefit, the CEO and founder of Infusionsoft, now Keap. Yeah, I said, "Hey, if there's an executive position here available where I could grow into this, let me know," and he said ... To their core values, he stuck. He said, "You know what? I want you to succeed. I think this is a huge opportunity." And I said, "Great. If I don't get the job, can I come back and work here?" He was just like ... He said, "Yeah. You're pushing it, but yes." I went and interviewed, and that was almost four years ago. I came in, and I built out all those teams for about two and a half years, and then transitioned. I hired my replacement. I stole a friend of mine from Tableau in Washington, DC, to come and be the head of sales, and he's doing a fantastic job about a year in. Since then, I've transitioned into partner development, business development, strategic partnerships. I speak a ton. Ryan and I and a couple of other people, we actually are more personality, forward-facing on stages and all that good stuff. Yeah. And here I am today, just finally getting on your podcast. I've actually made it. You know? Kathleen: Oh, I don't know about that. I think I've made it by getting you on as a guest. Marcus: No way. Yeah, that was a very abridged version of the story, but it's equally ... Sometimes it's kind of funny how you end up where you're at, and it was just a series of little, tiny decisions, and I'm just the most fortunate person on the planet to land where I did. Kathleen: That's awesome. As you were telling that story, there were so many things where I was like, "Ooh, I want to talk to him about that, and that, and that," the first one being I did not know that you owned a business with your wife for six years right after you got married. Marcus: Yeah. Kathleen: Here's what's interesting. I got married, within two months, started a business with my husband, which we had for 11 years. Marcus: And it was smooth sailing and you guys didn't fight at all. Kathleen: Oh. Oh, yeah. No, I still say til this day that my greatest accomplishment in life is that I am still married after owning a business with him for 11 years. Marcus: It's so true. Kathleen: We figured it out, but there did come that point, and that was part of why we actually exited our businesses. It was like we need to change gears. So, three years ago, for the first time in our marriage, we didn't work together. Marcus: Wow. Kathleen: Which was great, but also it was a little bittersweet, because we do work well together. Marcus: Yeah. Yeah, I think my- Kathleen: But that's okay. Marcus: My wife is the opposite of me in so many ways, which is great. I am just gregarious and out there and whatever, and Gina's a planner. She takes her time. She's all those things that where friction ... Friction can create a rub that's not great, or it can create fire, and a good kind of fire, and I think we really harnessed that for a bunch of years. We were traveling a ton. Then when we started to think about kids, it really just slowed down. We're like, "You know what? I think we should focus on our family," and that was great. That actually pushed me in the right direction to end up here, and so that was the coolest decision we made. Kathleen: That's awesome. I love it. I've seen you speak. You're really great, as is Ryan. You guys are like a power duo. Marcus: The best. Kathleen: No, really. Marcus: He's phenomenal. I always laugh, because he is ... We obviously have different styles. I think I'm so much more ... Ryan's a little irreverent. I maybe go way over that. I think we also kind of really lean on this edgy humor, kind of we think we're funny and so we need people to laugh and whatever. But we've sat in enough audiences over the last 10 years to really think, "Man, people are coming there to, one, learn, but they're really coming there to be entertained." I think there's an entertainment element that we lean on heavily in our camp and, just everywhere we go, we like to leave an impression. Hopefully somebody walks away being like, "Wow, I really enjoyed myself, and I learned something." That is the ultimate compliment. Kathleen: I can definitely say that's the experience I've had. So, mission accomplished. LinkedIn is making a comeback Kathleen: Now, with LinkedIn, it's been interesting to me, because I feel like in marketing it's sort of like ... Marketing's a little bit like fashion where, if you wait long enough, everything comes back, right? Marcus: True. Kathleen: If culottes can come back, then anything can come back. Marcus: Yes. Kathleen: In marketing, I think LinkedIn is really ... Not that it ever totally went away, but it's really having almost like a golden age. Marcus: A resurgence. It is. It was. It was. It was literally just a site that you'd put your resume, and why would you go on there unless you were trying to get a job or looking for someone to hire? I think when Jeff came in and really took over, he really started "Oh, well, why don't we add ..." The first acquisition they had was like, "Why don't we add an article component? Why don't we add ..." Then it turned into like a full newsfeed. Okay, people are coming here every day to consume content, to learn, to connect, and they're doing more than just using it as their online resume or CV, and that was like the major twist. But for a while there, it was just ... It wasn't going anywhere. It was completely stagnant for a really long time. Kathleen: Yeah. It was boring. Marcus: Yes, boring. Kathleen: I mean, I'll be honest. Almost every update you used to see, at least what I used to see, it just seemed like somebody was auto-posting their blogs. Marcus: Totally. Kathleen: There was not a lot of interaction. Marcus: Stuffy. It was like, "Oh, I'm on Facebook. My mom's on LinkedIn." You know what I mean? Kathleen: Yes. Marcus: And her coworkers are on there, and that's kind of how it felt. It's been around for a long time, so it's not like this is just some new, hot thing. They've got about 645 million people on the platform, but the majority of that came in this resurgence period. The last five years has been a major uptick when they started to add a bunch of things to make it sexier and more appealing for people to want to be there every day. That was a big, big difference. Kathleen: Yeah, no, I've had a lot of business owners, marketers, entrepreneurs say to me in the last year or so that one of their goals is to really invest more in LinkedIn and in their personal LinkedIn presence. It's easy to kind of cover the basics and be like, well, flesh out your profile and make sure you're following people and checking people you should follow and posting things, but there's so much ... As you say, there's so much more to it. How to get the most out of LinkedIn today Kathleen: So, if somebody came to you and said that to you today, with all the functionality that LinkedIn has and knowing how it works today, what would you say to them about how to really build a robust presence on the platform? Marcus: Yeah. You know, it's funny. People ask me to do a lot of things. I have a bunch of trainings out there for optimizing your profile and whatever. In fact, you can go do all of that stuff for free on Google. There is a million people talking about the 10 things, the 5 things, to optimize your profile. But what people aren't talking about and what's really helping people win on the platform is obviously ... It's not a secret. It's content. But it's not just content. People are putting things out in the world for sure. There's literally nine billion content impressions a week on LinkedIn, which blows people's minds. The other statistic that's staggering is the one that, of those nine billion content impressions, all of those are being driven by almost 1% of the population on there. So, it's about five million people pushing all the content. That literally equals viral, by the way, and the reason why it's viral is because, if you put out a piece of content to ... Let's say I have 15,000 followers on LinkedIn. If all of them see that I put out a piece of content, and they engage with it, so they comment or they like it, that'll show up in their activity feed. Then it just kind of trickles to a second and third connection. So, all these people, the 100,000 views that my post got ... I'll share some of the content strategies I have, but a lot of them go really far, hundreds of thousands of views because it's not about the ... It's the people who are engaging with it and who they're connected to, and then those people see it and consume it and pass it along. I just becomes this amazing thing. But the one thing I'll say that people aren't talking about with content is that it's not about content. It's not just about putting things out. It's about putting content out that creates the right types of conversations online. And what I mean by that is literally, if you're not putting out content that is starting a conversation, then it's literally just noise. It's just another thing that just clogs up our brain and our feed and whatever, but if you happen to leverage your content with the right audience and create a space for them to have a conversation or engage you or be able to engage one another, you are now a catalyst in that. You have a ton of power. People start to see you as an authority or a thought leader. That's where people are starting to take those online conversations off and do amazing things, partnerships, business, sales, et cetera, and they're moving that forward, because they've figured out that the real kind of equation is I need to find really good content that's relevant to a very specific avatar that I'm trying to target that will elicit a response that is a conversation. And you need to know what to do with that conversation in adding enough value and relevancy to get that to come offline and turn into an opportunity. That is what people are doing that are winning with huge followings, and they're doing it every day. So, it's not just about the content. It is about the conversation, for sure. Kathleen: What's really interesting about that, the way you describe it to me, is that it echoes some of what I say to people about their blogs as well. There are so many companies out there that are blogging, I feel like, unlike 10 years ago and you had to convince people to blog. Marcus: Everybody's got a blog. Kathleen: Now everyone has a blog, but there's a lot of "I'm just checking the box and phoning it in" kind of approach to it. I was saying this to somebody the other day. I'm like, "If people can go to your blog and find information that they can find anywhere else, why should they come back? Why should they subscribe? They can find it somewhere else." So, you have to be creating content that's somewhat unique, that is provocative in some way or another, but you have to give people a reason to return or engage. Marcus: Totally. Kathleen: It sounds like there is something there to that as well on LinkedIn, but I really like the way you're connecting this to a conversation, because it's one thing to provoke and to be unique. It's another to get a response. Marcus: Totally. And here's the thing. Be proactive enough to reach out and start conversations with people as well. It's one thing to get people who want to start a conversation. It's another thing to reply. Also, it's very interesting. There's a lot of missed opportunities with just wanting to have a conversation. I know that everybody ... This is very common knowledge for a lot of people, but on LinkedIn you can see who's viewed your profile. That's a really common thing. So-and-so viewed your profile. You had this many people who came to your profile. The only thing we don't do is we actually don't act human. We don't take humanity online with us, because in reality, if someone stopped and looked at you, they would probably look back and be like, "Can I help you with anything? What's going on?" Kathleen: Why are you staring at me? Marcus: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But in an online space, we don't really think that. So, when someone looks at your profile, they didn't just accidentally come to your profile. They were looking for something. They might have come there for a certain reason. They might have saw you in a feed somewhere. And that is the opportunity to engage people in a human way and be able to take advantage of the opportunity. The other last thing I'll say on it is that your profile, great, optimize it, but optimize it to start conversations as well. It's not just about the content you put out. It's your summary. It's your headline. People don't understand there's a lot of real estate that, when someone sees your photo and what you do, not your title but what you do, "I'm here to double the size of 10,000 businesses," or "I'm looking to connect with agencies that I want to help grow," those little lines are allowing people to quickly understand what you want to talk about, and it really helps target that conversation. So, I think it is about optimizing your profile, because you never want to have great content that points back to a really terrible ... I don't know. That's like having a really bad website with ads. Kathleen: Exactly. Yeah. Marcus: But it is an opportunity to not only optimize it but optimize it for the conversation, and don't be afraid to be human and follow up and really kind of push that. Kathleen: Well, you are definitely drinking your own champagne, as I like to say, because I'm not a fan of eating one's own dog food. Marcus: Yeah, I like that. Kathleen: Your summary is a really good example of that, because it's not the usual, "I worked here, and then I worked there. And now here's what I'm doing here." It's "I'm on a mission to overcome the stigma of selling," and I love that you end it with a question, because it goes back to what you said about starting a conversation. So, I'm curious how often do you get people who visit your profile, and then they reach out to you and say, "Hey, I saw your kind of manifesto and your summary, and I'm in." Marcus: It literally is a weekly occurrence, and it happens a lot. I use it when I speak, because I share that example, because people are like, "Well, I'm going to optimize this summary, but it's just there for SEO." No, people literally read them, and they want to kind of get on board. They won't get on board unless you tell them what to do. So, my summary is set up in a very narrative format. I wrote it to be a story. I wrote it to be engaging, to allow me to put some personality into it. So, yeah, I state my mission. This is what I'm here for. Then as you work your way down that summary, I also talk about how ... Because most people are salespeople who read my stuff, sales and marketers whatever, but I basically say in there that I didn't ask for a sales costume for Christmas. I didn't dress up as one as Halloween. I didn't ask for training for Christmas. Because we all kind of accidentally become salespeople, either by function or just necessity. It happens. If you own a business, you kind of have to. I realized that it comes with a stigma of just every single terrible salesperson that was thoughtless before me, and I need to overcome that in order for people to see, no, I'm a human being. I really want to connect with you, and I want this to be meaningful. At the end of it, I add a CTA that is like, "Hey, who wants to join me? Who's trying to join me on this journey?" And I just get people all the time that are just like, "Hey, I read your summary. It stuck out to me. I am on that journey as well," and those are the kinds of conversations that I want. I'm creating a summary with 2,000 characters, so that's a lot of real estate to elicit that type of response to have somebody who reaches out and goes, "I'm in. I'm all in. What do we do? Do you want to meet? Do you want to have coffee? Can we have a call?" I take them all the time, because they're my tribe. Those are my people. I can't do it alone. Most of those people really expedite this whole movement anyway, and many of them are business partners and friends forever and ever. Kathleen: That's awesome. It's a great example. So, if you're listening and you want to see how this is done in the wild, go search Marcus Murphy on LinkedIn and check out his about section, which is his summary. It's great. Marcus: Thank you. How to get started with creating content on LinkedIn Kathleen: Assuming somebody is listening, and they're thinking, "All right. I got you. I'm going to work on my summary, but then I need to start to post content," going back to what you talked about earlier, my guess is that a lot of the people that might be thinking that have been either not posting much, or they've been phoning it in and just posting links to their company blogs with minimal commenting or anything like that. How would you advise somebody like that to get started? Marcus: Yeah. It's interesting. It's a 1,300 character limit, meaning you've got to be somewhat concise, but you can definitely tell a story. I like using posts that ... My opening line is definitely somewhat provocative. This one I just did ... I wrote that the majority of people reading this are going to not hit their goals this year. That was my opening line. The reason why I said that is I went down, and I said, "We goal plan. We put a ton of time and energy and effort into doing that. We lock ourselves in rooms and make these big proclamations, but many people that I talk to, the one thing that's keeping them from their goals are the people they surround themselves with." I had an exercise that I put in there, saying, "Here's a list of three lists that you need to make." One of people that you need to go deeper on the relationship and show up more and go kind of obviously expand upon that relationship. Then there's a hard one, which is like here are the five people that are not helping you get there. These are the people that literally don't believe in you. They want you to fail, because misery loves company, and these people are just absolutely ... You're like one relationship away from succeeding and one relationship away from literally failing. I was trying to make that point, being like, "Plan all you want, but who you surround yourself with will literally affect that in massive ways," but I opened that and started to give people not only the provocative statement and the thought behind it, but I gave them the resource. I like to use the space to say, "Here is the thing that I want to catch your attention, which is for sure. Here's the little bit of stuff I've been thinking about that got me thinking about this question. And here's the resource. Here are the 3 things, 5 things, 12 things. Here's a link to et cetera." So that people understand, "Oh this is ..." That thing has ... There's just so many comments on there, because people are like, "Oh my gosh. Yes," or they'll tag other people and they'll start making that thing go. It's because they can relate to it, because it's a broad topic. So, I would say, if you're starting out, the only thing I would tell someone to do is be consistent and talk about something you actually care about. What you're going to realize is that you connect with a really amazing community of people that totally serve your purposes, or people that are either in your industry or people that you want to get in front of, but the interesting part is that, if you don't put out information that you're passionate about, you won't ever start a conversation. If you think that you want to put out every entrepreneur link or some Forbes article, cool, but you better have your own unique thoughts around it, and it should be something that you're passionate about, because people can tell. Kathleen: Yeah, it's interesting. The pushback that I hear the most on that ... It's actually the same pushback I get when I talk to people about why they should be doing more video. They say, "But I don't feel like I'm enough of an expert in topic X to put it out there." What would you say to do? Marcus: I don't think everybody's a thought leader. I'm going to say it. Everybody out there tells you ... You see it everywhere. It's like, "I'm a thought leader," and then this, "I want to share all this information and build a tribe and get a following and be an influencer." It's like, no you won't, and we don't need everybody to be one. What you can be is vulnerable. What works really well on this site ... My buddy David Gerhardt ... If you're not following him, you totally should. I think over the last year he gained almost 30,000 followers on LinkedIn, and one of the reasons is because he gets on there, and he shares his reality. He shares all kinds of things that are happening to him in his day-to-day. One of them he shared we like, "Here's my calendar, because I'm not willing to sacrifice my family for my job," and he was a really incredible job. He's a CMO. He talked about "I wake up here, and I dropped the kids off here. Here's my schedule." Oh, man. It got a million views, a million, that post. He was just sharing what he knows about. Here's the thing. You're saying, "Hey, I don't have anything. I'm not sure." Well, go ahead and tell people that. Ask for people's opinions to help you fill the void of what you don't know. There are so many people that are willing on this platform and in life to give advice. Some of the most viral posts that I've ever had are asking people, "Hey, you know what, I'm getting ready to go into a heavy interview season. I really want to hire quality candidates. What are some of those questions that you ask during your interview process?" There were 197 comments on that post. Everybody has an interview question, everything from what kind of Crayola crayon you'd be to more like, "Hey, what's your weaknesses? No, really, what's your weaknesses?" I think that if you don't have anything to share, ask good questions, because people want to engage, and they want to help you. So, helpful posts, you don't have to be the most creative. You don't have to be an expert or a thought leader. Not everybody is. It's funny. I'm the LinkedIn guy, but really what I love is when people ... When I have a need, I will go on there and ask and say, "Man, I feel completely ... I don't know the answer to this. Can someone help?" There's just an amazing response and flood of advice. Kathleen: Yeah. I also like to tell people, if you wait until the day where you feel like the world's foremost expert in a topic, that day is never going to come. The people that seem like experts are 99.9% of the time not the world's most foremost expert. You don't have to be. For everyone who feels like they have a certain skill, there is at least 10 other people who don't have that skill. And as long as you can impart your unique point of view about it, then somebody out there is going to find value in it. Marcus: I made fun of ... So, I was speaking at an event in New York City called Digital Agency Expo, and I was hosting it. Gary Vaynerchuk was there doing a keynote. We're backstage, and I'm like, "Gary ..." We've had a bunch of funny interactions. If you ever get the chance to meet him not online, like Gary, FU, go get hustle, or whatever, get some time with him. He's an incredibly genuine human being. But one thing that he said was ... I was like, "Gary, you've been saying the same stuff for like six years." He hasn't deviated. He says the same few things that are just ... He beats them to death, and he just continues to say them. When you find your thing and you see that it elicits a response from people, people are giving you feedback and they're saying, "Wow, you really understand this thing," you should just keep saying it, because there are so many people out there that want ... You'll think it's old hat, but it really is this new information to so many people, and you just kind of beat that drum. I really love that, because we'll all kind of wrestle with that, and be like, "Oh, I need something new and hot." When you're an influencer, a thought leader, in any way, you're like, "I just need a ... Maybe it's the next thing." No. You need to be an expert in that thing that everybody wants to seek you out as an expert in, and the only way you can start doing that is being consistent about the stuff that you were talking about and you're getting that really popular response. Then you just double, triple down on it. I think that was really cool. But, yeah, Gary ... We can't all be Gary either. Here's the word of advice for anybody that meets Gary offline. Just don't match his energy, or you'll look like an idiot. Don't do it. Don't try and just go with the ... Just be yourself. Kathleen: It's funny that you say that about sticking with the thing that works, because as you were talking about, who came to my mind was Marcus Sheridan, who I've gotten to know over the years and worked closely with. He started talking about They Ask, You Answer years ago. He just released the second edition of the book, and it's just as fresh as it ever was, not only because the principles haven't changed but the truth is, and I'm sure this is true about Gary V. too, you can tell people time and time and time again the way they should do things, and 99 out of 100 people still aren't going to do it. Marcus: 100%! It's never the content. It's never the problem. It's the implementation. Kathleen: Right. Totally. Marcus: People will never make the capacity or the space in their lives to do the things that they're hearing about. When you go to a conference ... We have Traffic & Conversion Summit coming up, and the number one thing I'm going to say when I walk out on stage, because I'm going to host it this year, and it's 10,000 people, by the way, which is pretty dope, but one of the things I say to everybody is like, "Hey, don't have a dusty ass notebook by the time we're done with this thing. Just don't." Find one or two things you can implement into your business, and just do it. Just go home and do it, because every idea and every big ... How many pictures of slides do you have on your ... Of every event that you've been to. You're not doing anything with those. They're just going to occupy space. You need to find the one thing and just implement, because 99% of people won't do it. They just get overwhelmed, or for whatever reason it just gets brushed by. And all that momentum and all the euphoric feeling, all that stuff just dissipates really quickly after you learn it. So, yeah, I think the one ... Man, find something you can just implement. Then you'll be better than half the population, which is crazy. Kathleen: A-freaking-men. With that, I'm going to actually just challenge everybody who's listening, because that's why I started this podcast. I used to go to marketing conferences, and I'd hear people talk. So much of the talks would be really exciting and inspirational, but I would leave feeling like, "I don't understand. I don't have enough tactical knowledge to be able to go and do stuff." So, whenever I interview people, I always like to cover the exciting, the inspirational, the strategic, but also leave people with some really concrete takeaways, which we are going to do before we're done here. So, my challenge to you as listeners is, as you are listening, find one thing in this conversation that you're going to leave and do today, because there will be some small things that you can do immediately, like make one new LinkedIn post that follows some of the things that Marcus is saying. One thing. Marcus: Love it. I'll like it. Tag me. I will comment. Kathleen: All right. Marcus: I'll make it go further. Kathleen: Awesome. So, with that, we're going to go from the ... We've talked about the why and the exciting stuff, and I want to start to get into a little bit of the nitty gritty- Marcus: Awesome. Kathleen: ... because there is a lot of nitty gritty that is really interesting about LinkedIn these days, at least to me, but I'm kind of a nerd about this stuff. Marcus: No, yeah. Let's nerd out. Text v. video posts on LinkedIn Kathleen: I've been playing around with LinkedIn also, and I'm nowhere near at your level. Some of the things that I've found really interesting is ... One is the difference between just plain text posts versus posts that have pictures, posts that have videos. Do you see any difference in performance between those three formats? Marcus: Yes, absolutely. You know what was really funny? When they added native video, it was like the hottest thing, and it was like a TV in a bar effect. You're going through your feed, and you see a video. You're like, "Oh, crap. A video. I didn't know they could do this." So, they got a ton of engagement. Now, videos are interesting. If you have good content, you're going to get eyeballs. If you don't have good content, it's not going to just be like because you've got a video on there you're going to get engagement. I always think it's really crazy. It's like have good content. Have good, relevant content, and you don't have to worry about what format. But, I'll tell you, I'm getting a huge response, a massive response from text, just straight text. It's working for everybody. It's 1,300 characters, and I space it accordingly. I usually have thought, space, thought, space, thought, space, because our brains work in a way of consuming data like it's a book. So, books have space between lines where, if you have a chunk of text, whew, it's just, unbelievable how fast people can scroll past that in the feed, because typically what happens on the actual text is that you start with your statement, what you're trying to catch someone's attention. Then if you continue to space it correctly, it'll have a see more button so somebody has to click that see more button to get down there. The video part, for me, I still use when it's man on the street interview. If I'm just going to pop open my phone, I've got a really important thing to say, and I just ... It's happening to me, and I want someone's help, or I share it. Those get a lot of engagement, because they're pretty authentic. That's the nice part. Some people like to see this. They love to see the "Oh, you're like a human being. Not just behind a keyboard. You have emotions, and I can relate with you." Even if it's the way you look. Most people, if they've never met me, they don't know I'm racially ambiguous looking, and I'm bearded and whatever. I think that sometimes that's really important to add the authenticity and that trust element is to leverage things for that: pictures, videos, and sometimes infographics and stuff like that. They're great, because infographics can tell the story of what you have, but you still have 1,300 characters, even when I put up a video. When I share our blog, like this actual podcast right now, I will put up my thoughts about it and the link to it, and that gets a lot of engagement because I'm giving people the big takeaways and what I really enjoyed about it. The one thing I'll tell you that's been detrimental, which is it's opposite of what we thought it was going to be. Probably a year and a half ago, I was sitting on an advisory board, and they were talking about live video. They were like, "Facebook has this live element. It's doing really well. Instagram's got obviously this live element. LinkedIn should have this live element." And it's only been ... Some people do really well, like Harvard or business pages. They're doing really well because of really important interviews and that kind of stuff. Most people it's just annoying. I realized I was losing followers when I was just popping up, because the notification that someone's going live is the most annoying thing on the planet. It's like, "Someone starts going live." It's like, "I don't care. I don't want ... That's not what I want to consume at the moment. It's not anything that's interesting." Now when you're connected to all these different people, it's anybody. It's like I don't want to know about how to sell brooms. That's the thing that I care about. Kathleen: It's not breaking news. Marcus: Yeah. So, until LinkedIn can modify that where it's like I'm following these specific people and the rest of it's noise, and I don't want to see these notifications but only from these people who produce this type of content, then it just becomes a thing that is annoying and disruptive. That's my feedback, by the way. I was just there about a month ago, and I told them these things, but I'll tell you nothing right now is beating written for that 1,300-character, no picture, no video. It's just doing really well, especially when you tag relevant people into it, you're using appropriate hashtags. Those things go bananas. I actually, every once in a while, which is pretty fun, it's a nice test, but I'll get notifications like, "You're trending in this hashtag," which is usually business or sales or sales leadership. Those are the three that I trend all the time in, and it doesn't take a lot. It's just the fact that most people are engaging with that post and it has a hashtag. If you don't have a hashtag, it won't trend. That's crazy, because it shows up in people's inboxes when it starts trending. It'll say, "Hey, Marcus Murphy is trending on this hashtag," and then you click on it. It takes you to the post. It's super. Yeah, writing. Writing is hands down ... Heavy word posts are what's winning on LinkedIn right now. I think that, yeah. Like I said before, the only caveat that I have is that good content wins. It just totally does, regardless of the format. In this case, we are seeing that there is a bigger life in just the good old text-heavy posts. Kathleen: There was a couple things that you said there that I just want to call out for people who are listening as far as takeaways. One is you have 1,300 character limit. Two is that it's going to cut off what you write, and there's going to be like a see more kind of a link. So, you need to put something that's going to catch people's attention right up front. It was interesting. I did an interview with Goldie Chan a few months ago, and she talked about- Marcus: Yay! My homie. I love Goldie. Kathleen: She's awesome. She was the one who got me started doing LinkedIn video, because I was so inspired by her. Marcus: Oh, that's awesome. She's the woman. Kathleen: Yeah, she talks about something similar where she puts a question in her first line, because you do need to have something right up front that hooks people, that draws them in. Marcus: Yep. Kathleen: Then I liked that you talked about breaking up and having spaces. I noticed that too, that it's much easier to follow. You gave the example of Dave Gerhardt. He definitely does that as well. If you're putting one sentence or maybe two at the most per paragraph- Marcus: Yep, that's right. Kathleen: Then hashtags. It's funny. You're so right about the trending thing, because I don't have ... I have like the fraction of the percentage of followers on LinkedIn that you do, and I still get, "Your post is trending," and I'm like, "That's so cool!" Marcus: Yes. It's awesome! It's so cool, because it also shows up that way for everyone else who you're connected to. So-and-so is trending right now, and you're like, "What are they ..." Because trending on Twitter means something completely, right? We use the same terminology, so it makes it important. There's an elevated sense of this thing is super important, and I love that. And you'll see it. I honestly believe ... That's the reason why I mentioned Dave Gerhardt specifically is because he posts constantly, and he goes against the status quo, which most people are like once or twice a day at max, but he posts everything that he's thinking about. Kathleen: Almost every single time I open up LinkedIn, probably 9 times out of 10, he is the first post, and it's a different post every time. Marcus: Yeah, that, but that's a part of it. He's posting things as he goes and he learns and he's reading, and he's doing a lot right now in terms of content. He even has a private, paid content, which is amazing. So, you can check that out too. I feel like I'm just plugging Dave, but what I want you to do though is actually pay attention to what he posts and how he posts, because he's figured out. If you look at people when things go viral or they get a response on LinkedIn, they have figured out what people want to read, what they want to consume, what's helpful, and we test things. I'm constantly testing content. I am trying to figure out what that perfect thing is for my audience. So, Dave has figured out for his audience. He speaks to marketers. He speaks to very specific people that he is dialed in and knows exactly what gets a response. I work through, and I get big responses, and then I'll have some that are okay. They just did okay. I'm like, "Okay, that's too specific or not broad enough," or "How do I bring people in?" I constantly kind of play with things, because there is going to be one post that you have ... Just hear me now. There's going to be one post that you have, and it's going to ... Something's going to happen where it's just like, "Oh my gosh. That got like 150 likes and all these different comments." All you have to do is pay attention and try to replicate that experience with all of your content and try to work backwards. Dissect that and think about it, or look at other people who are getting a big response and be like, "Man, how are they speaking to their audience? What kind of content are they? Would that work for my network?" Because it's so different from person to person. Yeah, and hashtags are just great. I think people don't use them enough. It's the one thing I keep telling everybody to do. It doesn't look bad at the end of your post. It's okay. You're just trying to connect with a bigger community, and that is where people find you. That is how you grow your following on LinkedIn. Should you use emojis in your LinkedIn posts? Kathleen: Totally agree. Now, I love that you raised do the thing that's right for your audience. That leads me to the next question I was going to ask, which is directly relevant to what is right for your audience, which is, what is your position on using emojis in your posts? Marcus: Ooh. I use emojis all the time. Super basic like that. No. I think emojis are fun. Okay, I'll tell you my first job out of college I worked at Syracuse University, and I was an admissions counselor, which is a glorified salesperson who goes out and gets applications and does those presentations where you want to take a pencil and stab yourself in the eye with your folks, when you go check out universities. I had someone give me terrible advice once. It was very bureaucratic, very stuffy, suit every day kind of job. The dean told me one time, "Hey, don't put smiley faces in your emails. Don't do that. That's not appropriate." I sat there for a long time, and I was like, "You know what? It's not appropriate. I've got to stop doing that. I can't believe it." Then as I started to get older, I'm like, "How the hell is anybody going to figure out how I feel and what my tone is?" I'll tell you that emojis, while they're still funny and some of them are wildly inappropriate, which I like to use in my personal life, not on LinkedIn, I do think that that tells a ... It adds texture to the post. So, I think they can be overdone. I don't like when people put it in their headline or near their name. I think that's totally tacky, and it doesn't help you. It just makes me think that you're wearing Hawaiian shirts at home or something. I think this is more about, hey, I need to add texture here so people can understand my tone, whether it's a fire symbol or whether it's whatever. I totally like that, because people will read through it, and they'll go ... But I do think that you can overdo it. You can put it where it's just a thing that you think is helping you get more eyeballs on your posts, or you're thinking that it just makes you more relevant. It needs to make sense for the post. Like I said, it's just appropriate when you're adding texture or you need someone to understand that you're being sarcastic. That's a really popular one. Like your face, or you say something that people would miss in context if you didn't have something that was emoting and sharing what you're trying to get across. So, yeah, I am for them. I use them, especially if I'm posting from my phone, because obviously it's way harder on your computer to do that. Then I also just think that I've seen them done poorly, and I've seen people do it where I'm like ... I'm very sensitive to overusing them, but I only use it when I'm trying to add context and make sure people know this is my tone, this is what I'm trying to get out there. Don't miss it. Kathleen: Yeah. I am for emojis as well. I'm team emoji. Marcus: Yes. Kathleen: What I've also found is that, because you can't format the text in your posts on LinkedIn ... You talked about it when you talked about leaving spaces between what you write. Visually, sometimes it can all just bleed together, and sometimes emojis are a nice proxy for text formatting. Marcus: Totally. Kathleen: If you bookend a really important line with emojis, it's almost as good as bolding it. Marcus: Oh, it's awesome. Kathleen: Things like that. Marcus: I wish they would let us bold. It's so funny. When you write it, when you actually write the post before you actually hit post, it'll allow you to bold everything, but then when you post it, it goes away. Kathleen: Yeah. They're faking us out. Marcus: Yeah. Oh my gosh. I do another thing that some people don't love, but I emphasize very specific words. I will capitalize a but. I will capitalize a you. I will make sure that I'm showing emphasis on the things that I want to elevate. And I do that, but I'm not yelling at people. It's not like all caps on. But I like to do that. Anything that you can add in, like I said the texture, or you can add in an element where you want someone to make sure that this is what you pay attention to, like you just said the bookend emojis, super popular. It makes sense, especially if it's like, "This is the thing." Like the sirens. I see people do that. It's like, "This is the thing! Don't miss this! If you don't read anything else, this is the thing right here that you can't miss." So, yeah, I'm super pro emoji. And I don't even care who knows that. Kathleen: Yes! Wear it with pride. Should you add links to your posts on LinkedIn? Kathleen: The other thing that I hear people asking a lot is should you or should you not put a link in your post, or should the link be in the comments. Marcus: Right. It depends. I put links in my post if I want that thing to show up with the image. So, there's a link image that goes underneath posts if you only put that one link in there. Sometimes I think that that's interesting that people don't want ... Because it breaks a bunch of classic rules, right? You want to link away from a post, or you want to link ... You take people away. A lot of people will put that link in the comments, which is an interesting move. I think if there's multiple links, I would absolutely not put those back to back, because you only get one shot at that image of what you want people to go to. I use this all the time, because I share ... I do a ton of podcasts, and I have a lot of content out there. I will share that thing that I want people to go look at. Or if it's an article, I'll put it right in there, and I'll even put emojis around it to make sure people click it because it's the most important part. I'm adding context to it. But I have no problem with putting the link in my post. It's funny, because you'll get someone equally as passionate about not doing it. I've just never seen it do something ... It's never taken people away. Engagement hasn't dropped. I think that it's only bad when you bifurcate it with two so that somebody's attention might not be in the right place. But if you've got the one thing and that really great thumbnail that comes up where it really catches someone's eye, or it's like you on a podcast so it's your still ... When I actually launched my first LinkedIn Learning course, the link brought up my LinkedIn author photo. It was the coolest thing to put that in the post, because obviously people could see "Oh, that's his profile on LinkedIn Learning. That's pretty dope." So, yeah, I'm pro link in post. I don't need to- Kathleen: All right. Marcus: I'm not going to apologize for it. Creating conversations on LinkedIn Kathleen: We're putting our stake in the ground here. Now you talked in the beginning about how you want to start a conversation, but then you mentioned something in passing, which I think was really important that we haven't talked about yet, which is you have to then know what to do with that conversation. Marcus: Right. Yes. Kathleen: So, I'm just going to lob that ball over to you and let you run with it. Marcus: Conversational frameworks are super important. It's funny, because I went and spoke somewhere, and I don't remember where it was, but I had these students come up to me afterwards who were at college somewhere, and they want to get into the workforce. They wanted to get into sales. They're like, "So, how do we start a conversation with ... How do we talk to people?" I'm just like, "How do you do it in real life?" Because I feel like we miss that. A conversational framework typically starts with somebody saying something and the other person responding, and then it actually should go through steps. The part that's really wild about online conversations is that we treat them so differently. We treat them in a way where it's almost like in a sales ... Let me ask you this, and this is going to be a funny question. People online, raise your hand in your brain here. But how many of you have gotten a terrible sales prospecting message on LinkedIn? Kathleen: Oh my god. Like a thousand of them. Marcus: So, why? You know why? Because no one is actually treating it like a human to human conversation. It's not B2C. It's not B2B. It's H2H. And people are forgetting that humans have a way of building basically intimacy. They build relationship in a very specific sequence. We are animals. Animals do it too. You can literally observe us and watch how that progresses to get to a place where somebody's like, "I know this person. I trust this person. We are in a relationship. This is us." I'm not talking about romantic, just I know this person enough. I think that we don't translate that well online. Most of us show up like those sales messages. They're basically like, "Hey, I'm Marcus. Let's go back to my place." That is what they feel like. Kathleen: Let's do it. Marcus: Yeah, let's go. I've got pizza. I don't know. It's just terrible. You've added no value. You've added no context. They don't know why they want to go back with you. You have built no trust in your communication. So, the first thing that people get wrong is that they literally get online and say, "Hi, I'm So-and-so. Here's all my crap. Do you want to buy it? Here's who we are." It's like, cool. Great. That has nothing to do with what I'm doing. You haven't identified any of my themes. You don't know what I care about. You have taken no time to think about how to start this conversation, because you don't know me at all. But based off of some assumptions, I can have a better conversation with you online if I start to look at all of the information that's out there for you. So, there's no excuse. There is zero excuse to have a thoughtless form of outreach because of how much information is out there, especially on LinkedIn. If somebody is replying to you or you are putting out content, you're already giving them an arsenal of things that they could be starting a conversation with you about. If somebody replies to your post, and they're like, "Man, this is ..." Let me just give an example. This the best post. I totally ascribe to this. Click on their profile, find out who they are. If it's relevant or if there's something in there where you really want to connect with them, go ahead and go connect with them. Then use this real estate, which is super popular and everyone does it wrong ... You get to add a custom note to any invitation that's 300 characters. Now, what you can do there to stand out from everyone is not talk about yourself. Don't talk about what you can do for them. Don't ask them who in their organization can help you. That also makes them feel bad, by the way. That's a belittling statement. Ask them, "Hey, I saw you comment on my post. I looked at your website. I love this thing about you. I have identified this thing that I think is interesting, and I would love to be connected with you." That is a very normal introduction, very first interaction, human conversation. Then you can start ... Guess what? You can start having more of a conversation that allows you to learn more about them, and they learn more about you, because typically what people don't understand is, if I talk ... If I was talking to you, Kathleen, and I was just talking to you about you about you about you the whole time, asking questions, eventually you're going to do something very human. You're going to go, "Hey, what do you do? Who are ..." Kathleen: Yeah, enough about me. Marcus: Yeah, it's like, what's going on with you? That's a very human thing, but people online typically don't follow the same cadence as in real life. If they could just take their normal how they would interact with people on a daily basis in a bar, on a plane, even though most of you need to stop talking to my on airplanes. Okay? If there are some plane-talkers listening to this, please stop it. It's like I put a blanket over my head. Kathleen: Yes. Big headphones. That's a signal. Marcus: Then somebody still leans over like, "What's your life story?" It's like, no. Stop it. I'm just literally trying to read my book. No, but I think the majority of us just don't take those interactions and make it an online kind of how ... What would the cadence of an offline conversation sound like, and how do I replicate it online? You are going to be a guru. You are going to stand out in a million ways if you can just get that little, tiny piece right and understand that ... To succeed in B2B, take a lesson from B2C Marcus: You know, it's funny. I'll say one last thing, because I talk a lot. But B2B, everyone's all super obsessed, because LinkedIn is like the B2B platform. It totally is. What's winning right now in any B2B kind of how you start a B2B conversation is to go super hard on B2C. If you understand that you're actually talking to people within the organization and you understand that you're a business and you're trying to get in touch with other businesses, but that business, that point of contact, is a human being, B2C the heck out of that B2B, all right? Figure out a way to continue to add that human element, and take that offline conversation to an online space. Everybody's going to want to talk to you, because you're going to be so different than everybody else and all those thousands of terrible prospecting messages that we get. By the way, Kathleen, I stop and I write them back all of the time. I give them advice, or I say, "Hey, does this really work for you? Do you understand that this is your reputation?" I try. Probably like 1% of them ever take me up on like, "Hey, go fix these things and prospect me again, and I'll give you a meeting." And like no one does it. Kathleen: Yeah. It's so true. Email marketers really have a similar trick they use called the rule of one, which is when you're writing an email, you picture one specific person, often a friend. When you're writing that email ... And I do this all the time. I have this particular friend named Jen, and she's in my head. Whenever I write any marketing email, I'm like, "Would I ever send an email to Jen with a subject line that's like brackets, webinar?" Marcus: Oh, that's so good. Kathleen: No. I'd be like, "Hey, thought this might be of interest to you," dot dot dot. And I may or may not capitalize like the first word. I don't know. But I think it's the same principle. I always tell people, if you're having trouble operationalizing this, pick a friend and pretend that you're conversing with them.  Marcus: Yeah. Or people want to write a novel in the first engagement, the first interaction with people. Our best performing sales email of all time was written by Ryan Deiss, and it literally said this. It said, "How can I make X business go faster?" Question mark. That was the highest performing, highest open rate, and most responses, because we weren't trying to get them to go to a website and pull out their credit card and buy something. We were trying to start a conversation. When you try and start a conversation, it sounds a hell of a lot like you would send a text to somebody or you would send an email to your friend. So, that's super important, man. We just miss it. It's just so missed, because we all want to ... I don't know. We overkill. We just... Kathleen: Yeah. I like to say we go to work, we put our marketing hats on, and we forget that we're human beings. Marcus: It's so crazy. Follow v. connect on LinkedIn Kathleen: Okay. We're running out of time. So, I have another question for you really quickly. Somebody raised this to my attention recently, and I'm sort of interested in it, which is that now you have the choice on your own profile to make the button follow or connect. The advice that somebody else gave to me was that, when you surpass a certain number of connections or you're reaching a certain level of activity on LinkedIn, you should change that button to say follow, because it's a lower bar and more people are likely to hit follow than connect. I would just love to know have you thought about this, what's your feeling about it? Marcus: So, they're kind of right and wrong. Basically, depending on what level of connectedness you are. So, if you're a second connection ... You'll see people, when they show up and you're not connected to them, it's like second, third. Usually if they're outside of those two, they won't even show up. You can't even connect with them, because you still get the follow button. It's still there. You hit the little dropdown on the right, and there's an opportunity to connect. Now, the follow is interesting. A lot of people, mine shows up as follow. I think that what I realized though is the amount of views I get to my page, or to my listing, my profile, is a direct correlation with how many people request to connect with me. Here's the deal. I don't connect with everybody. I think that's kind of foolish, because it's a quality over quantity game for me. If it's 15,000 followers, of those are half of the people that I really want to be connected to who I'm happy to be able to message and have them message me, because that really is the real significant difference between a non-connection and a connection. It's not like Instagram. It's not like Facebook. There is no way to have a private profile on LinkedIn. Your information is there. It's just the ability to engage with people, and you have to be connected to just send that message. So, I don't have a strategy for once you're getting going. It's funny, because Dave and I ... I don't have it. If you want to connect with me, send me a connection request. If you want to add a note in there, I'm going to- Kathleen: Tell him you heard him on the Inbound Success Podcast. Marcus: Yeah. Usually I totally connect with people, because I'm not afraid of those messages. It doesn't always mean that I'm going to respond to them. I get thousands of messages a month. I literally just showed somebody the other day. I was like, "Here is December." They were like, "How many do you get?" It was 568 by the time I was halfway through, the 17th. Kathleen: Wow. Marcus: But it's not like a bragging thing, by the way, because some of that's hard to keep up with. I have to have people in there, making sure that there's opportunity versus someone who's trying to solicit me, like all these different things. But the majority of them are pretty thoughtful, people that just want to say thanks and "Hey, I really enjoyed this," and "Hey, I'm connecting with you because we're pretty similar." I do think that I can tell the standard you copy paste that line that we're very similar networks, or "Hey, you look like a really great, ambitious person. I want to connect with you." Great. The next message after you connect with them is going to be "Here's my stuff. Do you want to buy it? Come back to my place." Kathleen: Totally. Marcus: So, I think that there's something in the fact that connections should mean more and have more weight. It used to be even a cap on it. LinkedIn used to cap it at 30,000 connections, and now that's kind of gone, because David actually just told me that a little while ago. That is not the case anymore. So, they're not actually ... They're not throttling that in any way. But I would be really cautious, because who you're connected to is important, because that shows up and shows other people who you are connected to as well. This is a personal thing, but we have people in my office who will go on, and they've just got tons of connections request. The only way they'll connect is if they see that Ryan, myself, or somebody else shares a connection. So, if I'm just out there connecting wit

Marcus Murphy is a well-known leader in the marketing and sales community that has gained attention for pioneering new and effective inside sales techniques. Along with being the prominent Director of Sales at Digital Marketer, Marcus is a respected LinkedIn instructor and speaker. His thoughtful and sharp advice about utilizing the world's largest networking opportunity has helped shape conversations across LinkedIn since the early days of the platform.

LinkedIn is becoming one of the fastest growing social media platforms that caters to professionals. If you are good at creating relevant content, it paves the way to starting conversations with people and building powerful connections. This is what Marcus Murphy teaches as an Instructor and as part of the Customer Advisory Board on LinkedIn. Prior to this, Marcus was the Director of Sales and Monetization of Digital Marketer from 2016 to 2019. His job description included accelerating revenue growth and sales productivity for DigitalMarketer's flagship product, DigitalMarketerHQ, as well as sales for individual certifications and Certified Partner program. In this episode, Marcus shares why he prefers using LinkedIn when connecting with people and how it can be utilized to your advantage. He talks about how the platform is changing and the three biggest areas where he sees opportunities for entrepreneurs, marketers and salespeople to improve in their connections and conversations. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!Here's How »Join the Note Closers Show community today:WeCloseNotes.comThe Note Closers Show FacebookThe Note Closers Show TwitterScott Carson LinkedInThe Note Closers Show YouTubeThe Note Closers Show VimeoThe Note Closers Show InstagramWe Close Notes Pinterest

Welcome to the holiday edition of The DigitalMarketer Podcast where we’ll be highlighting some of our favorite parts from our past episodes. You’ll hear from Ryan Deiss, Richard Lindner, Marcus Murphy, Amanda Powell, Becky Zieber and Shannon Goodell on DM’s SEO strategy, how we made our content more consumable for our audience this year, and how we plan our blog pipeline. Thanks for joining us this week. Want to subscribe to Perpetual Traffic? Connect with us on iTunes and leave us a review. iTunes not your thing? Find us on Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or at DigitalMarketer.com.

Marcus is an entrepreneur and sales expert who cares deeply about the flourishing success of entrepreneurs. Marcus previously worked for Yelp, helping them go from start-up to multi-billion-dollar giant. He also worked at Infusionsoft and is currently sitting on the advisory board of LinkedIn. More importantly, he's the head of partnerships and business development at Digital Marketer and their other portfolio companies.

129 | Marcus Murphy Teaches Us That Failure Doesn’t Have to be a Death Sentence When someone says NO to you, what is your first thought? Marcus Murphy is an entrepreneur and sales expert who cares deeply about the flourishing and success of entrepreneurs. Marcus previously worked for Yelp in San Francisco, going from start-up to multi-billion dollar giant. He has also worked at Infusionsoft as the Global Partner Development Manager where he developed and broadened new international markets through strategic partnerships, and is a recognized instructor and speaker at LinkedIn. Currently, the Head of Business Development & Partnerships at DigitalMarketer, Marcus has pioneered new and effective techniques that enhance the results of the traditional inside sales model.  He believes a combination of inside sales, social selling, and strategic partnerships are the next generation of business growth. Marcus prides himself on his ability to connect with diverse and international audiences while captivating their attention with storytelling. Hearing a NO is a defining moment in your business, right? Whether it’s a supplier, investor, or customer, that NO is going to change how you move forward! Anyone good at sales is going to look at every NO as a learning opportunity: what can we learn from that NO? How can this NO teach us what to do in our next sales meeting, or pitch? I’ve heard a lot of NO’s in my career, and every single one of them has taught me something. Back when I was pitching Jamba Juice, to bring FITzee Foods into their stores. I thought we were on the way to a huge YES, but they told us NO. To make it worse, it was through email. Looking back with everything I’ve learned about sales since then, I can see a lot of improvement. There are so many steps to nurturing a sales relationship, and I’d skipped some along the way.  But failure isn’t just failure unless you choose to learn from it! Take lessons from the NO’s, and move on to your next win! This week’s guest on Success Unfiltered, Marcus Murphy, works with Digital Marketer. He’s heard a lot of NO’s in his career, and is here to share exactly what he has learned from those NO’s, and how you can learn from them too! If you’re feeling discouraged from the NO’s you’re hearing, make sure that you tune into this episode of Success Unfiltered! Enjoy, and thank you for listening and tuning into Success Unfiltered! To share your thoughts: Email The Pitch Queen @ hello@thepitchqueen.com Ask a question over at www.ThePitchQueen.com Share Success Unfiltered on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, & LinkedIn  To help the show out: Please leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one. Subscribe to the show on iTunes. Special thanks goes out to Marcus Murphy for taking the time to chat with Michelle. Be sure to join us next week for our next new episode! What Do You Do When The Client Says NO? Rejection in sales can be harsh. How do you get back in the game after one too many NOs? Learn how to get over the NO’s in this guide. Here are a few key secrets we talked about in this episode: Michelle introduces Marcus Murphy. Marcus shares about his sales history, from selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door, all the way to working for Yelp! “Rejection is so basic...we are in a culture of winning.” ~ Marcus Murphy Marcus shares about how he is a serial entrepreneur: rejection is in his DNA. Failure is a great learning tool, but if you don’t take the time to learn from it, it’s nothing more than just failure. Marcus shares the juicy details about how he landed a $30,000 deal as a marketer: he had a plan with blog posts and social media management. But because he didn’t communicate, he got fired from the job, and had to give $20,000 back.  The reason for that failure? It wasn’t about the numbers of the stats: it was HIM. They didn’t like Marcus and working with him.  The lesson to learn is that not everyone is going to like you; we’re all an acquired taste. “You can’t go into sales trying to dodge rejection. You need to embrace the fact that it is going to happen.” ~ Marcus Murphy Marcus advises that you should always assume that the first response will be NO, and keep an option in your back pocket. If someone says NO, then ask when was the last time that they spent that amount of money! Find out what would make it worth it to them.  You have to show your customers or clients the value, and build the hype and anticipation. The best salespeople are those who are comfortable with silence.  Help them to see what their lives would look like after your product or service. It’s all about creating the best before state and after state, and showing how you make your customer’s lives better. How can you appropriately sell to people? Marcus shares the steps of selling, and how you can break past the stigma of selling. Marcus encourages all of his sales reps that he works with to watch the movie, Patch Adams, to reinforce that first and foremost, it’s all about the people and the relationships. Marcus shares about the 12 stages of human intimacy, and how they relate to sales. When you’re in sales, all 12 of those steps are important, and help with closing the sale at the end. You can’t skip any of the steps: that’s where the stigma of sales comes from. Keep your core values at the front of everything that you do, and don’t be afraid to say NO to potential clients and customers who don’t fit those values. Keep looking for wins, especially in relationships. Some of Marcus’ best friends are the people he has made the most money. Marcus shares what he would tell his younger self. Connect with Marcus Murphy: Digital Marketer Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Twitter YouTube What Do You Do When The Client Says NO? Rejection in sales can be harsh. How do you get back in the game after one too many NOs? Learn how to get over the NO’s in this guide. Music produced by Deejay-O  www.iamdeejayo.com

How did Jake Neill help B2B SaaS company SocialChimp cut its cost of customer acquisition (CAC) by 95% in 30 days? Jake Neill This week on The Inbound Success Podcast, Lead Hounds Marketing CEO and Co-Founder Jake Neill breaks down the 90 day accelerated growth strategy that he and his business partner use to help their client meet aggressive growth goals.  Jake's Digital Experience Roadmap framework can be applied in any business, and he shares the specific story of SocialChimp, a client that he worked with to cut CAC and generate more than 5,000 qualified leads. Highlights from my conversation with Jake include: Lead Hounds Marketing focuses just on strategy and leaves marketing implementation to its clients and partners. The company has a specific customer journey framework that it uses to build 9 day, accelerated growth plans for clients. One client, SocialChimp, needed a way to more predictably generated new qualified leads and customer acquisition. Using their framework, Jake and his partner cut Social Chimp's cost to acquire a customer by 95% in 30 days, and generated a 7.41 return on ad spend. They also generated 5,677 leads at an average cost per lead of $5.15. Jake says there are three things that are key to making any offer successful - the audience, the message and the offer. A successful campaign must be focused on one particular type of customer avatar, and that customer's key pain point. The Digital Experience Roadmap has seven relationship levels: strangers, visitors, leads, qualifieds, opportunities, customers and fans.  Jake generally begins by building out a good lead magnet and finds that with that in place, the rest of the roadmap tends to build itself out. Jake finds that the best lead magnets are hyper specific and able to be consumed quickly - things like checklists, tools, etc. For SocialChimp, Jake created a "real estate swipe file" aimed at realtors that is converting at 84%. Once you acquire a new lead, then you have to qualify them. Jake finds that deep dive content such as webinars and ebooks work very well at this stage. One thing that many marketers miss is the step that involves turning customers into fans. Jake says there are incredible opportunities for upselling at this stage and growing revenue without having to acquire any new customers. Jake uses paid ads to promote his initial offers and get them in front of the right prospects. When it comes to nurturing leads, Jake says it is critical to keep your marketing human and make sure you are using language you would use conversationally and not artificially pushing a sale onto someone who isn't ready for it. Resources from this episode: Visit the Lead Hounds Marketing website Check out the SocialChimp case study Connect with Jake on LinkedIn Connect with Jake by email at jake@leadhoundsmarketing.com Listen to the podcast to get learn exactly how Jake uses the Digital Experience Roadmap to build 90 day accelerated growth strategies for clients like SocialChimp. Transcript Kathleen Booth (Host): Welcome back to the Inbound Success Podcast. I'm your host, Kathleen Booth, and this week my guest is Jake Neill, who is the CEO and co-founder of Lead Hounds. Welcome, Jake. Jake Neill (Guest): Hey, Kathleen. Thanks for having me. Jake and Kathleen hamming it up while recording this episode together . Kathleen: I’m excited to chat with you. Can you tell my audience a little bit about yourself and about Lead Hounds? About Jake Neill and Lead Hounds Marketing Jake: Yeah, of course. So, Lead Hounds Marketing is, we're a company of just two people, and our sole focus is on giving people a formula and framework for predictable growth. So, our objective is to put people on a path to doubling their sales. So, we live, eat, and breathe strategy specifically. So, we're not as much... Early on in our company's journey, we were doing Facebook ads, doing all kinds of things, but what we realized was there's a real need in the industry right now for people who are architects. So, what we did was we partnered up with another company in San Diego named Digitopia, and they are a full-house digital marketing company, and they do kind of the SEO, PPC, all that kind of stuff. So, we partnered with them and used their framework to engineer what we call Digital Experiences to turn strangers into fans, and then they do the implementation side, or the client does it in hands, or in-house. Sorry. Kathleen: Nice. I like that you guys have zeroed in on strategy as your strength. I think there's a lot of agencies that try to be all things to all people, and there is something to be said for not doing that and becoming very specialized. I say that as somebody who has been in agencies for 13 years. I used to own one, and now I'm in one as well. Jake: Yeah. 90 day accelerated growth plans Kathleen: Yeah. Well, one of the reasons I was excited to talk with you is that you guys do specialize in working with B2B SaaS, and you have these 90-day accelerated growth plans where you're able to get really great results for your clients. It's not like a blueprint. It's not like a copy-and-paste solution, but you do have kind of a structured approach to how you do this, and I loved that when you and I spoke you were able to share one particular case study that got amazing results, and I thought it would be fun to just use that as the example through which to break down what this framework is that you use, and how it functions. So, let's maybe start at the beginning, and if you could talk a little bit about how you guys think about the customer journey, you have a particular name for it. Jake: Yeah, totally. So, yeah, like you said, I didn't mention that earlier, but we do focus on B2B SaaS. We've done a lot across different industries, and the framework applies across tons of industries. The framework's been implemented for companies as big as Toshiba, and then all the way to startups. So, I'll show you... That's the case study that you're referring to, that we had already spoken about, was a case study for a B2B SaaS startup. I think it's a really powerful case study because it shows that you don't need also these big budgets and an established business to implement these principles. No matter what your size is, you can implement those things today. Kathleen: Yeah, and you have a couple of resources that I'm going to link to in the show notes. So, I think one of them is an example of your customer journey framework. So, if you're listening, and you want to have some visuals to refer to as you listen, if you happen to be in a place where you can do that, head to the show notes, and you can pull that up and actually see it as we talk. Click here to view the SocialChimp case study Jake: Yeah. I would highly recommend pulling up that document, and you can even pause the podcast as we're focusing on each relationship level, and you can even kind of put in your own. How would that apply to your own business? That would be really helpful. That way, it's not kind of like drinking out of a fire hydrant. Customer journey framework Kathleen: I love it. All right. So, let's start at the beginning. Talk us through how you think about customer journey. Jake: Cool. Yeah. Well, the first thing that I kind of want to start with is just the output, because I want people to understand that when you implement this methodology, that it actually works. So, we implemented it for a company called SocialChimp, and with SocialChimp, they were a startup. They were looking for funding, and they didn't really have a way to predictably acquire customers, which is what I see happening across the board. That's the biggest issue, is how do we create predictability. Tons of people are pushing a lot of different tactics, which are vital. Right? The tactics are important, SEO, Facebook ads, webinar funnel, whatever it is that you're trying to implement, but the problem is when you don't have a systematic approach to turning strangers into customers, then you're kind of like a bull in a China shop. Right? You're knocking over everything. You don't really know what's working, what's not working. Sometimes things work, but you don't really even know how it worked, why it worked. So, if you can't measure that thing, then you can't optimize it or do more of it. So, this framework really helps you get the foundation, and when we implemented it for this company, we cut their cost to acquire a customer by 95% in 30 days, and we generated a 7.41 return on ad spend, and we also generated 5,677 leads at an average cost per lead of $5.15. Kathleen: Was this all in 30 days? Jake: No. So, the first 30 days was cutting the cost to acquire a customer. That did happen, and the 95% decrease happened in the first 30 days, but the campaign's been running for a little bit. It's still running to this day, and still producing predictable results, which is really important because with the tools and tactics, they might work also for a period of time, but they only work for a set amount of time. They might be working for the next six months, but they're not really what you're going to build the foundations of a business for years and years to come. Kathleen: Got it. Okay. So, let's walk through it. Jake: Yeah. So, one last thing before I jump into the methodology is there's a couple things that you have to understand, is with all marketing across the board, there's three things that have to be hit in every single campaign. There's your audience, your message, and your offer. "With all marketing across the board, there's three things that have to be hit in every single campaign. There's your audience, your message, and your offer." - Jake Neill, Lead Hounds Marketing So, I know it's very basic, but what I'm going to assume is that you already know who your audience is, and that you can already articulate the offer to that prospect or that customer in a good way to actually move them to action. So, you already have those things dialed in. I'm going to assume that. So, if you don't have that dialed in, then make sure you dial that in before you implement the methodology. Kathleen: Yeah, and I think most listeners of this podcast probably have all that together, because they're generally pretty savvy marketers. Jake: Perfect. So, in order to understand the methodology, the first thing you need to understand is a little bit just briefly about the actual client themselves. So, we implemented this methodology for SocialChimp, and they have a software that automates social media posting for various industries, so real estate, wealth management, insurance, all kinds of stuff. So, what we had to do first was identify and hone in on our target market. This is a big mistake I see people making early on, is they try to create campaigns that funnel in tons of different customers, but you have to... You can build multiple campaigns, but for a successful campaign, it needs to be focused on one avatar. So, what we chose were real estate agents. The last thing, too, before we jump into the methodology is the... When you identify the audience, you need to hone in on a key pain point. A lot of you listening to this are going to skip this step, and you're going to start working on the Digital Experience, and it will fail if you do that, because hyper-specificity is key to the success of building out this roadmap or this Digital Experience. So, for the client that we serviced, their target market was real estate agents, so what we did was we interviewed real estate agents, we spoke to them, we did our research, we did our due diligence, and what we found was their biggest pain point was, how do I build and engage social media presence without any kind of time? So, they're all stretched for time. They want to sell real estate, but it takes a lot of time and commitment and consistency to post. So, we had to build a Digital Experience out of that. So, at this point, if you don't have the Digital Experience map, I'm about to jump into it. Definitely pause, download the Digital Experience, and then follow along with me. Kathleen: All right. Jake: So, on the Digital Experience map, we have seven relationship levels, and you see those on the side here. I'm going to briefly touch on them. There's strangers, right? That's the very first step. Someone has no idea who you are. So, the questions you have to start asking yourself is, what offers are we going to offer strangers to turn them into visitors, and then visitors, to turn them into leads, and then once we have leads, how are we going to qualify those leads, and then once they're qualified, how are we going to turn them into sales opportunities, and then once they're a sales opportunity, how do we close them into a customer, and then from a customer, ultimately, into a fan? So, those are the seven relationship levels that we have to implement in our business if we're going to see the consistency and the predictability. So, at the first level, you've got the blog post here. So, what we have is what we call a cornerstone piece of content, and that's how we turn strangers into visitors. But I want to take one step up to the lead sector just briefly, because that's actually where we start. If you can build and identify a lead magnet, a really, really solid lead magnet, then this experience begins to kind of build itself out. So, what we did for this client was... A lot of you are already familiar with a lead magnet. By the way, a quick note on lead magnets. The hyper-specificity is super important, but also that it can be consumed rapidly. I see a lot of people using things like eBooks, but those are better used for deep-dive content, which is later in the journey, because it consumes a lot of their time. So, at the lead stage, and this would change your business, if you guys can come up with a really, really, really good lead magnet, a lead magnet is... When you're thinking about a lead magnet, think about tools, checklists, things that can be consumed really quickly and solve a problem. So, with a lead magnet, the place that we always start is making a promise. So, I don't even start with the tool itself. I identify what promise can I make to the prospect that's in alignment with the key pain point. So, what's the best possible thing I could promise? So, what we did for this client was we identified, well, they want more social media engagement, and they want to do it in less time. What if I could hand you more than a month's worth of proven social media content to post to your newsfeed? Right? Where most people would go and say, "Well, let's educate them on how to post better posts." Well, the issue is they don't have time, so you're missing the mark. That's why it's so vital to identify that key pain point early on. Kathleen: That makes a ton of sense. Jake: So, what we did was we created the real estate social media swipe file out of that promise. We said, "How can we give them over a month's worth of proven content?" Well, we just went to... I think it was BuzzSumo, whatever the app is that has... You can find most engaged content. We grabbed the most shared real estate content of 2018. We grabbed 40 posts. We put them into a swipe file, into a PDF document, and then we wrote some copy. We wrote some different copy variations for each post and embedded a link. When the real estate agent clicked the link, it populated the social media post into their newsfeed and gave them 40 free posts to post for, depending on how many times you post, a month or more. Kathleen: Awesome. Jake: So, that lead actually to this day is converting at 84%. So, 84% of the people who land on that page are giving us their email address, and it's not because of the landing page design and the landing page copy. That, of course, matters, but it's about identifying an offer that aligns with that key pain point at this stage in the journey. Kathleen: Yeah. It's like the best landing page copy in the world can't make up for that offer. Jake: Yeah, exactly. It doesn't matter if you're... Yeah. I mean, you could offer a toothbrush, you could write the best copy for a toothbrush, but I don't know how many people are going to opt in, give you their email address for a free toothbrush. Kathleen: Right. Jake: So, once we identified the lead magnet here at the lead stage, the rest kind of writes itself. One thing to note as we're going to build out this experience together, each stage, as you elevate the relationship, it should be the next logical step. So, I should be able to say, "Because you read this blog post, you might be interested in downloading this lead magnet. Because you consume this lead magnet, you might be interested in watching this video. Because you watched this video, you might be interested in this product." So, it needs to be this logical progression. So, after we identified the lead magnet, we went down to the blog post stage, and this is how we turned strangers into visitors. Yes, you can create tons of different content. You can do SEO, this kind of stuff, but the cornerstone piece of content is this one kind of content that explains the value of the actual tool itself. So, what we did was we created a blog post called How to Repurpose Your Content and Get 10 Times the Exposure. So, if you notice the blog post, once again not teaching them about social media, it's showing them how to save time and increase their social media engagement. It's showing the power of repurposing content, and then the tool, what does it do? It gives you the content, the repurposed content kind of done for you. So, there has to be that logical progression. From the lead stage, now you have an email. So, if you guys know about using automated emails, this is where that would kick in, but don't let... If you don't know how to use automation and the CRM and everything, don't let that hold you back from building the experience. That's just a way to push people to the next stage. So, once you have a lead, you have to identify, how do we qualify this lead? So, this is where we build deep-dive content. So, in the SaaS space, a lot of times it's kind of videos around the product, but in most every industry, webinars work really great. This is also where eBooks can work. So, in this experience we built out a free trial video. We said, "Okay. Well, you just downloaded 40 social media posts. Well, how about we turn those 40 into an unlimited amount of social media posts?" So, that's where the free trial, we showed them the software that curates all these posts for them, and then posts it to their newsfeed every day for as long as they want. So, after watching the free trial video, we had a qualified lead, and then could offer that person a free trial offer. So, we said, "Now that you've checked out our video, now that you've checked out our software, would you like to take a free trial?" So, this is a really, really important step. It's a little more straightforward in the software space, because usually it's a demo or a free trial offer, but the foot-in-the-door offer is essentially an offer that you can give that's a low barrier to entry, so it's not your core offer. You don't want to jump in and say, "Buy my product," yet. You want to say, "What could I offer this person to get them to commit one of two things, either their time or their money?" A lot of people forget the value of getting someone to commit their time. Sometimes it's harder to get a commitment of time than a commitment of money. Kathleen: Yeah, that makes sense. Jake: Yeah. Maybe for the viewers who aren't in the software space, just some examples of ways to turn qualified leads into opportunities, let's say you're a brick and mortar. Let's say you're a dentist. People offer $20 teeth whitening. Right? It's not the core offer, but where does a dentist want to have the sales conversation? Where do they want a sales opportunity, when your mouth is open, and they're working on your mouth, and they want to say, "Hey, you've got some loose teeth here, or some crooked teeth. Have you considered braces?" Then that pushes them to the core offer. So, that's an example of an entry point offer that's not in the SaaS space, but if you are in the SaaS space, demos and trials work fantastic here. Kathleen: Yep. Jake: Then, obviously in the SaaS space, software works, selling actual software after the free trial. Now, there's all kinds of practical things about getting people to actually use the free trial. A lot of people sign up and don't use it, so you need email automations and things pushing people to actually use the software, but the software, your core offer, is that next step. Then from the core offer, after someone purchases, the next step is, how do I turn them into fans? So, at the fan stage there's a lot that we can do. What we want to focus on at the fan stage is increasing the lifetime value and the immediate value of a customer. So, what you do here is you offer complementary services to the core offer that would be interesting to the prospect in order to increase that value. So, for them we said, "Hey, you've taken the free trial. You're now using our software to post every day for you. Would you like some more awareness?" So, we offered them paid ads. We said, "You know, we're not..." Once again, it's not costing them time, but they're getting to spread their message out and build their brand and get more engagement to more people, because we're going to manage their ads for them, and maybe do something like a hundred dollars a month, something simple. But that was a really good complementary product, and we had 10% of people took that upsell, and then it allowed us to increase the lifetime value of a customer by 20%, which is extremely important because you can move your entire top line by 20% with one single offer. Kathleen: And without signing any new customers. Jake: Right, exactly. Kathleen: Yeah. Jake: So, that essentially is the framework. I don't know if there's anything that you feel like would be good to hit on in terms of helping people with the more practical side of thinking through any of these offers, but that's just one example in the software space. Kathleen: Yeah. I mean, it sounds like... So, we're talking about going from a stranger to a visitor, to a lead, to a sales opportunity- Jake: Or to a qualified lead. Kathleen: ... to a qualified lead, to a sales opportunity, to a customer, to a fan. Correct? Jake: Correct. Promoting your offer Kathleen: So, really, it's an expanded kind of concept of the customer journey. You guys have a special name for it, the Digital Experience? Jake: Yes. Kathleen: Yeah. It sounds like the key to it, at least what I'm hearing, is really deeply understanding the pain point, because if you get that wrong, it's like Dominoes. Right? You start at the beginning. If you get it wrong, nothing else works. Jake: Yeah, exactly. Kathleen: So, for SocialChimp, you did this exact thing. You walked us through all the different offers and the content, et cetera, that you created. One thing we didn't really touch on too much was, how did you promote the offer in the very beginning? Jake: Yeah. I mean, the way that we promoted it in the very beginning was with paid ads. I mean, there's a lot of ways to promote, and it also depends on your goals. What I see a lot of people missing on as well is the business math on the front end. They don't actually calculate things like, what is the lifetime value of a client? Well, maybe the lifetime value of a client is a thousand dollars, and then you have to ask yourself, well, what percentage of that profit are we willing to spend to acquire that customer? So, let's say typically a business is going to use 10% of two to three years worth of the value of a customer. If you're a startup, sometimes you'll use the whole lifetime value because you want to scale, but most businesses aren't going to use more than 10% of the first two to three years of the value, the profit, not the revenue, the profit of a client. So, it's identifying it early on, how much am I willing to spend? So, if the lifetime value is a thousand dollars, and you're willing to spend 10%, then you know the cost to acquire a customer can't go above $200. Then what you can then begin to do is you can begin to map out your conversion rate at each of these levels. So, you can say, "Okay. What percentage of visitors are becoming leads? What percentage of leads are becoming qualifieds, qualifieds into opportunities," and so on, all the way up to fans. You can then begin to reverse engineer the percentages. So, let's say at the customer stage you are turning 10% of customers... Or let's do the opportunity stage. You go to your sales team, what percentage of opportunities are we currently closing? 30%. Well, if you want to add an additional 10 customers, then you need to make sure you're bringing in another 30 sales opportunities in order to close those customers. So, you can reverse engineer all the way back to the visitors, and I'll actually... In the Digital Experience worksheet, I actually have a business math section, and you can fill that out. We won't have time to go over that in this call, but you could fill that out and identify what is your max cost per click. So, then you can decide what platforms to play on. So, if my max cost per click to drive a customer is going to be, let's say, $1.50 to turn the stranger into a visitor, then I'm probably not going to play on LinkedIn ads, because LinkedIn has a price floor, and you're not going to be able to drive traffic for that $1.50. So, setting up the business math on the front end is really important and vital to the success of campaigns, and it also helps with... If you're a CMO, for instance, and you're reporting to the CEO, it's really important because sometimes a CEO doesn't necessarily have realistic expectations of what should happen on the marketing side, and you can't dispute the numbers. Right? So, what you can do is you can show the numbers and create realistic goals around customer acquisition and what budget you'll need to fuel those customers. Kathleen: Yeah. I love that you guys focus on the cost of customer acquisition, because I think that's a big mistake that a lot of marketers make, especially those that are new to pay-per-click. I hear people ask the question all the time, "What should my budget be?" Right? They think that there's some magic lump sum number, like you're going to say, "Well, if you spend $3,000 a month, you're going to get results." It's really, the premise of the question is flawed because it shouldn't be what should your budget be. It should be how much are you prepared to spend to acquire a new lead or a new customer. As long as you're staying within that amount, your budget could be infinite. Right? Jake: Right. Kathleen: If it's resulting in customer acquisition, then you wouldn't want to cap it, certainly. You wouldn't want to say, "No, I got 10 customers. That's the end of my budget." You would want to keep it going. So, I think that's so interesting, that little shift in mindset that happens, and it's definitely something that you see... The mistake is something you see made a lot by people who are novices with pay-per-click. Jake: Yeah, definitely. So, I'd highly recommend using the business math section on that experience worksheet, and just as you build out your own experience, measure the conversion rate from customers to fan. Well, you can start from visitors to leads, and all the way up, and then measure those numbers, and it's kind of a fill-in-the-blank document, and it'll produce at the end of it what you'll actually spend. It will create the goals for what you can spend to acquire a customer, and that'll inform everything moving forward. Kind of to jump to the original question, I know I kind of went on a side tangent, I think it's an important one, but what we realized was this software was only being sold for $49 a month, so the cost per click that we could drive was on the lower end. So, we chose to play on Facebook. We didn't choose Google Ads or LinkedIn or anything like that. Of course, real estate agents are using Google, but the prices are a bit higher. So, we knew if we were going to get a really big return on our investment, then we needed to really drive home some good offers that could drive low cost per clicks, and Facebook's a great platform for that. Kathleen: Yeah. Now, you also have used retargeting. Correct? So, once somebody gets into your funnel, if you will, or into this Digital Experience, there are ways you can use retargeting to push them faster down it? Is that correct? Jake: Yeah. Yeah. So, that's actually a really important point. I'm glad you brought that up. The middle section on this experience map are the offers that we're going to give someone at each of these relationship levels, but on the outside you see things like retargeting, advertising, SEO, social media, email marketing. These are the platforms and the tools that you use to move people through the journey, and that's where I see most people starting, and that's a very, very, very bad mistake because of what we talked about earlier where you're just going to be implementing content, SEO, retargeting, and you're not going to have a systematic way to predictably bring in customers. So, we did implement retargeting, advertising, social media, all this kind of stuff, but it was to move people through the journey. So, you see, at the first stage, at the visitor stage, we started running ads. Our goal was to push as much traffic to this blog post as possible to build up an audience that we could then retarget. Right? So, retargeting, we retargeted the blog traffic to the lead magnet to get them to give us their email address. Well, now that we have their email address, we have a way of contacting them in multiple platforms. We can speak to them on email and retargeting ads still. So, for people who downloaded the lead magnet, we had email sequences. Kind of just a note on when you're doing this as well, keep it really, really, really human. We didn't say, "They downloaded the real estate social media swipe file. Quickly, buy the free trial. Watch the free trial video. Buy this thing." People can ascend really quickly through the Digital Experience, but we kept it, and our emails would follow normal relationship building, and we'd say, "Hey, because you downloaded this swipe file, I thought you might be interested in watching this video about how you could have a lifetime of proven highly-engaged real estate," and it's just like, "Hey, check this video out, and it's because the action prior to what I'm asking you to do now is you kind of raised your hand and said, 'Hey, I'm interested in this kind of thing.' Let me give you more of it." So, it's really about thinking from a value. It's not this kind of... A lot of people talk about this kind of stuff purely in funnel terms, and they think about funnels and funnel hacking, but a lot of times, people get so caught up in those things that they're just looking to make the sale as quickly as possible. But I think when you... That's why we changed the language from funnels, where people are kind of dropping down in the funnel, to elevating relationships, building experiences that are going to actually earn us the right to do business with our customer, as opposed to these kind of gimmicks that are, "Maybe we can kind of get our customer to buy with this thing." Kathleen: Yeah, marketers are the worst at that. I always say this. We're people, right? We're people who buy things, and we know, as people who buy things, what we like and what we don't like when we're marketed to, but then when we go and put our marketing hat on and become marketers, it's like we throw everything we know about being human beings out the window, and we do the opposite. It's like, the biggest mystery to me of marketing is why do we allow ourselves to do that. Jake: Yeah. I mean, it's wild. I see it happening all the time. I see people, "Hey, you read this blog post. Do you want to get on a call so I can talk about me and my product?" No, I actually don't. I also try to keep things in that human-to-human mindset and ask myself the question, number one, put myself in my customer's shoes, in my prospect's shoes. Would I want to receive this email? Does it make sense for me? Does this thing add value to my life? If the answer is no, if this email... This is a great principle to use. If you're going to send out an email, whether it's automated, eblast, or if you're going to post a blog post, so many people get caught up in, "Well, how many emails do I need in order to push them to the next step? How many blog posts do I need to post each day or each week?" The answer is not about the quantity of content that you're pushing out as much as the quality of content, because when you put something out, it says something about your brand, and if you're putting out crap, then people are going to... They're going to start associating you with, this isn't worth my time. So, if you send them enough emails that aren't valuable, they're going to start... Number one, they're either going to unsubscribe, or number two, in their mind they're going to say, "I don't need to open this email because I'm not going to miss anything." But if you're always adding value, then when they see an email come through from your brand, then in the back of their mind, "I know I'm busy right now, but if I don't read this, I may lose out on something really important to learn." Kathleen: Yeah. My little hack for that is instead of imagining I'm the recipient, because sometimes that can be hard for me, I actually think of a friend, and I think, if I were emailing my friend Abigail, what would I say? I wouldn't say these spammy things, right? I would be friendly. I would be helpful. So, I picture a real person, and I write to them, and that's really helped me a lot make things less marketing-robot-like. Well, this is so cool, and hopefully people have gone in and downloaded the visuals, because it is very helpful to follow that along in this conversation, and if you didn't, go download it afterwards and then re-listen to it again, because you'll get more out of it. The results Kathleen: But I want to recap, go back to the results you got, because this is the exact process you used with SocialChimp, and you guys had crazy good results. So, can you just mention those again? Jake: Yeah. So, when we built out this Digital Experience, we took someone who was getting terrible results, they were spending way more money than they were bringing in. Their cost per trial was $1,147. That's pretty bad. Now, what were they doing? They said, "Oh. Well, we've got a great product, and we're giving you something for free. Do you want it?" So, they were running ads straight to their free trial, but that would be like me walking up into a coffee shop and saying, "Hey, I'm pretty awesome, and I'm rich and funny. You want to get married?" Just because those things may be true, I may be awesome, and we may be a great potential match, but if I come at it with that approach, then I'm going to turn off that person. So, in the same way, I can't come across in that way to my customers. I see a lot of people telling stories about themselves to their customer, but the real question that we need to ask is, how do we change the story that our customer tells about themselves? How do we take them from point A to point Z, where they want to be? So, when we stepped away from that and said, "Okay..." They wanted to hire us originally to run their Facebook ads, and I told them, I said, "I won't run your Facebook ads because you have a much more fundamental problem. If you push traffic to this system right now, then you're just pouring water in a leaky bucket, and you're just going to be wasting money." So, we had to build out that experience, and when we did that, we cut the cost per trial from $1,147 to $56 within just 30 days. Kathleen: Wow. That's crazy. Jake: Yeah, you can see the... We were selling the product for $49, but we also had an upsell that 10% of people took, so it made the monthly payment $59 a month. So, within 30 days, as a SaaS product, they were recouping what they were spending to acquire a customer. It's really, really, really powerful for a SaaS company. Kathleen: That's awesome. Definitely speaks to the value of kind of that whole... You have to slow down to speed up. Don't just try to drive traffic to a bad offer or a bad website. You've got to have a solid foundation. I love it. Jake: Yeah. Kathleen's two questions Kathleen: Well, before we wrap up, I have two questions I ask all my guests that I want to ask you. The first one is... We're always talking about inbound marketing on The Inbound Success Podcast. Is there a particular company or individual that you think is really doing inbound marketing well right now? Jake: Well, besides you, I would say DigitalMarketer. If you haven't heard of them, it's digitalmarketer.com, and my agency's actually certified partners with them as well, they've got tons of resources. But they are phenomenal at this. They really, really, really focus on adding so much value that you almost feel obligated to purchase, because by the time they offer you anything that you have to pay for, you've already learned so much that you know a couple things. Number one, there's this kind of feeling of, well, I need to give back to this person, and then there's also the feeling of, well, I got so much value for free, I can't imagine how much value I'm going to get when I pay them. Kathleen: Yeah. Yeah, they are great, Ryan Deiss and Marcus Murphy and the whole team over there. They're just killing it. IMPACT is also a partner of DigitalMarketer. It's a great company. All right, second question. I always hear from marketers that there's just so much changing in the world of digital marketing, and it's really hard to keep up with. How do you personally stay up-to-date and on top of all of that? Jake: Yeah. So, there a lot of ways. I would also say I do stay up-to-date through DigitalMarketer because they are one of the leading trainings and resources for individual companies, marketers, and digital agencies. They're kind of on the cutting edge, and they are certified with so many people like us who are in the trenches, and then we relay that information to them so that they can get quite a large amount of data around what's working, what's not working. So, I use DigitalMarketer, and then that's how I stay up-to-date, but I really think a lost art is looking back at some of the older advertising, like some of the books, like Breakthrough Advertising. If you haven't read that, it's really phenomenal on copywriting. But going back all the way to the people who were writing direct mail and getting people to literally mail... They were mailing something to someone's house to get them to purchase a product from one single letter. It's really powerful psychology and principles to be learned from those people as well. Kathleen: Yeah. I love that whole going back and being old school. I've had a bunch of people mention that, and everyone cites different books. I think the one you mentioned is a new one. But some of these principles don't change, because they just have to do with human nature. So, it's not like there's new advances in human nature in 2019. It's the same basic principles, and I think sometimes we lose sight of that as marketers. So, great insights there. How to connect with Jake Kathleen: All right. If somebody's listening, and they want to learn more about Lead Hounds, or they have a question and they want to reach out specifically to you, what's the best way for them to do that? Jake: So, they could email me directly. My email is jake@leadhoundsmarketing.com. That would be probably the quickest way to get a response. Kathleen: All right, awesome. I will put that link in the show notes. So, if you want to reach Jake, either shoot him an email or head to the show notes and get that link. You know what to do next... Kathleen: If you're listening, and you learned something, or you liked the podcast, please leave the podcast a review on Apple Podcasts, preferably a five-star review, but I say this every week, and this week I'm going to challenge you if you're a regular listener to take a moment and do that. Leave a review if you haven't done it already. I would really appreciate it. It helps get the podcast in front of more people. If you know somebody else who's doing kick-ass inbound marketing work, tweet me @WorkMommyWork, because they could be my next interview. Thank you so much, Jake. Jake: Thank you, Kathleen. It was awesome.

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Pinterest is often written off as a lifestyle site with little to no value for businesses, but you CAN use Pinterest to drive traffic, leads and sales for your business...and here's how. This week on The Inbound Success Podcast, Alex Nerney explains how he has used Pinterest to successfully build a following and drive traffic and revenue for not one, but two online businesses. With more than 3 million monthly views on one Pinterest account, and more than 4 million on another, Alex knows a thing or two about what it takes to not only create a successful Pinterest presence, but do it in a way that generates meaningful business outcomes, and in this episode, he's sharing all the details of that strategy. This week's episode of The Inbound Success Podcast is brought to you by our sponsor, IMPACT Live,  the most immersive and high energy learning experience for marketers and business leaders. IMPACT Live takes place August 6-7, 2019 in Hartford Connecticut and is headlined by Marcus Sheridan along with special guests including world-renowned Facebook marketing expert Mari Smith and Drift CEO and Co-Founder David Cancel. Inbound Success Podcast listeners can save 10% off the price of tickets with the code "SUCCESS".  Click here to learn more or purchase tickets for IMPACT Live Some highlights from my conversation with Alex include: Alex and his wife Lauren created their blog Avocadu.com and within a year, were making more than $100 thousand dollars a month from it. From that success, they built CreateAndGo.com, a site that teaches people how to make money from blogging. Alex has two business Pinterest accounts, one that gets 3.1 million views a month, and another that gets 4.4 million view a month. When you think about how to use Pinterest for your business, you need to focus on curating content for your target avatar. The important thing to understand is that what works on Facebook and other platforms will not work on Pinterest. When starting out on Pinterest, you should plan to have around 10 boards. Pinterest is a JQuery search engine, which means it drives organic traffic through keyword search. You can do keyword research right inside of Pinterest by typing in a keyword that you want to get found for and seeing the types of searches that come up. You can use this information to create top, middle and bottom of the funnel content, just as you would with any content marketing strategy. PINGROUPIE is a helpful tool that can be used to identify boards that are influential for a particular topic on Pinterest. Images that are 1,000 x 1,500 pixels do best on Pinterest and you can use tools like Canva.com to create them. Treat the copy for your Pinterest posts like you would web copy and ensure it is SEO optimized. Pinterest has recently introduced the ability to share video on the platform, opening up new possibilities for how marketers can use it. The key to getting found on Pinterest is to post consistently. Resources from this episode: Save 10% off the price of tickets to IMPACT Live with promo code "SUCCESS" Visit Alex's website Follow Create and Go on Pinterest Follow Avocadu on Pinterest Check out Alex's blogs on Create and Go and Avocadu Subscribe to the Create and Go YouTube Channel Follow Alex on Instagram Listen to the podcast to learn how Alex has used Pinterest to drive traffic to his blog sites and get the specific strategies he shares with clients looking to achieve similar results with Pinterest marketing. Transcript Kathleen Booth (Host): Welcome back to the Inbound Success Podcast. I'm your host Kathleen Booth, and this week my guest is Alex Nerney who is the founder of Create and Go, which is an online blog which, get this, that teaches others how to start a blog and make money from blogging. So you're the blogger that teaches bloggers how to blog. Alex Nerney (Guest): I know, tragic. Kathleen: Welcome on. Alex: Pulling into this space. Thanks for having me. Alex and Kathleen having WAY too much fun while recording this episode Kathleen: Talk a little bit about yourself. How did you wind up founding Create and Go? What led you down this path and give a little bit more about your background. About Alex Nerney and Create and Go Alex: Yeah, for sure. Let's start out with explaining "the how we fell into this" for our readers. Back in 2015, I was working as a personal trainer at the time and my co-founder, Lauren, was working as a CPA, and we were really disenchanted and disenfranchised with where our lives were headed. You could kind of see the writing on the wall. We didn't have a lot of time for vacations, and not a lot of time to travel, didn't have a lot of time to do the things that we wanted to do. It felt like we were always chasing the weekend and drinking our sorrows away on the weekends. So we decided that we would start a website. Started out with a website called Health and Happy Hour and that website failed completely. It was a- Kathleen: Oh my God, but I love the name. Alex: It's an amazing- Kathleen: It's Health and Happy Hour. That's like having it all, having your cake and eating it too. Alex: Exactly, exactly. You know, the funny thing is people still to this day, I get that comment all the time. They're like, "That's an amazing name," but just another business tip is that your name doesn't necessarily mean your success, you know? So we started it and really was centered around us and we wanted to talk about working out and health and drinking, because those were the things that we liked to do. And so, we went through, and it was just where we started. It was our foundation. That blog ended up not succeeding. We started another blog called Avocadu.com. Less funny name, and hard to spell and not the most perfect name in the world, but that blog we grew very rapidly. Within a year, we were making $100 grand a month. During that time, we quit our jobs and went all in, sold all of our things and tried to make this whole blogging thing work. And so, what happened is we started this blog and it became successful, and the pain of going through that process of learning how to blog was very real, because I felt like other people who were teaching this subject about blogging about blogging didn't know what they were talking about, because that's all they had ever done was to teach people how to blog about blogging. They'd never ran an actual separate blog. And so, it was very much like, "We should do this because we can do this so much better." And so, that's how Create and Go was formed, and we teach blogging about blogging and we love what we do and we love getting to help people. We've had a few students now reach six figures and beyond, go from zero dollars to quitting their jobs in all sorts of niches, in anxiety and depression and law, and things like that. So it's just been a phenomenal process. It's been a lot of fun for us, and so, to this day, Create and Go makes over $100 grand a month. We make over $100 grand a month, but combined between our blogs, and we really teach people how to do it and how to get started. So that's me. That's us. Kathleen: That's a great story. I love that you shared that the first one didn't work, because I feel like there's so many of those stories, whether it's my first business, or, in my case, my first podcast was a big dud. Alex: Oh, really? Kathleen: I do find entrepreneurs especially tend to be very reticent about sharing their failures. I was business owner for 11 years, and I remember how isolating it can feel when you feel like everybody else is crushing and you're like, "Wait, what am I doing wrong?" Alex: For sure, for sure. Kathleen: But, under the surface, there's a lot that a lot of people are doing that's wrong, and I think if we all were willing to embrace that and talk about it more, we would all be better for it. You learn so much from those failures, and so thank you for sharing that. Alex: I totally agree, I totally agree. I think it's that necessary step of success, and it can be a very humbling thing as well, because I know you're like me, and you consider yourself a smart person and watching all these other people succeed while you are failing again and again, beating your head against your computer, it can be frustrating, but it just becomes part of the story, and I couldn't agree more that the more people that share that open process and share the facts that, "No, it's not all laptops on the beach." It's not all that dream all the time. I think it's so important for beginners starting out and having success. Kathleen: Totally, and I remember once I did research on this and I was shocked by how many seemingly wildly successful entrepreneurs, at the same time, have been flat out failures at things. Like Dyson is a famous example that most people know who tried, I don't even know how many iterations, 50 some odd, hundred some odd iterations of the vacuum before he landed on the one that worked. And Oprah got fired from her first job and network TV, and there's so many more like that where you look at these people and you think, "You're just magical. You know how to do things," and you don't see those earlier failures. Alex: Totally, totally. It's easy to see people's successes. It's not as easy to see the hard times, because the problem, too, is we don't record the hard times. Kathleen: That's right. Alex: We don't hold the camera up for the late nights in front of a computer, because we're just like, "Nobody cares." But, I think that one day someone will. So, I'm talking to my personal trainer, and I'm like, "Dude, you need to film yourself every day right now. When you're not aware, being perfect," he's young guy. He's 23, 24 now, and I'm just like, "Dude, you need to start filming everything, because if I could go back and have one thing, it would be to have the proof of those things. If you have the late nights in front of the computer where nobody's watching but you." Kathleen: Yeah, yeah. I feel like we could have a whole nother podcast on this topic- Alex: I feel like we could. Kathleen: -because I'm super passionate about it. Using Pinterest to Grow Your Business Kathleen: But, there was a very specific reason that I wanted to talk with you, because, in addition to teaching people how to blog, one of the things that is very interesting about you is that have a Pinterest presence, which, first of all, is interesting because Pinterest, the majority of the users of Pinterest are women, so I love talking to a guy whose doing well in Pinterest, break the stereotypes, and you get 3.1 million monthly views on Pinterest, and that has actually fueled the growth of your blog. I've talked to a lot of different marketers on this podcast about a lot of different growth strategies, and Pinterest has never come into the conversation, so I was really excited to talk about it for the first time, especially not just how do you do Pinterest and get followers, but how do you do Pinterest and achieve goals outside of Pinterest, using Pinterest? Alex: Totally, totally. So, humble brag, too, we also have another one that has 4.4 million as well. Kathleen: Ah! That's crazy. Alex: We got the Pinterest system down- Kathleen: That's awesome. Alex: -so I'd love to share about it. How to Monetize a Blog Kathleen: Now, before we dig too deeply into Pinterest, one thing I do want to clarify, because I want to make sure I understand it, and also my listeners. You talk about yourself and your co-founder making money with blogging and, obviously, teaching others not just how to blog, but how to eventually monetized the blog. Can you just give me the quick highlight reel of how are people monetizing blogs? How are you teaching them to do it? Is it primarily through advertising, or are there other methods that your clients and yourself are using to monetize your blog? Alex: There's a scalable system that people should start with, and I think it's almost true of any digital business, and it starts with basic things. What I've noticed from teaching just beginners is that getting those first few wins matter a lot. So what it starts with, it starts with things like sponsored content and ads, because those are layups, those are things where people can make their first few dollars, and sometimes it's just about believing that this thing is real, right? The next step up would be high-level, or affiliate marketing, just general affiliate marketing. Everybody should start there because of a variety of reasons, because it allows you to test things, it teaches you to sell, it teaches you what products are selling. It's a really valuable lesson. Then scaling up to a higher level version of affiliate marketing where you're marketing higher priced products and services. Again, another level of learning, another step. And then, the final step I actually think is creating your own products and services. I think that's the final step, is whenever you're building this community, you know how to sell things, you know what your community needs probably better than affiliate product, and then you create your own. And then you create your own products and services, and that's really how you scale something up to $10 grand a month, $100 grand a month, is by creating your own digital products and services. Kathleen: Okay. Thank you for clarifying that, and to make sure that I understand, so a lot of my listeners are actually in B2B marketing roles, and when I put on my B2B hat, what I hear when I listen to describe that, is you could start with, if you have a site with a blog, you could start with either taking advertising, or sponsored content, from companies that want to reach the audience that you have. IMPACT, my agency, takes sponsored content. So this is happening in B2B already, for sure. And then, it sounds like the second level, being affiliate marketing, for an individual blogger, it's easy to image how that might play out. For a B2B blogger, I could see things like if you are doing book reviews using an Amazon referral link so that you're getting a slight kickback on anybody who buys that, and I would presume that, in doing that, then the rule of thumb is always "be very transparent," because I believe there are FTC guidelines around that. Alex: Absolutely, absolutely. And those are serious things. Kathleen: Yeah. And then the third level being whether that's create a training course, or creating some kind of a subscription based, or membership based offering. Alex: Yeah. Kathleen: I could see it translating very easily to B2B, and have you seen that as well? Alex: I think so. I haven't personally worked in that space, but here's how I image it. So let's say you have a software business and let's say you're building out a SaaS program, what you could actually do partner with other SaaS programs, and say, "Hey, listen. I want to drive you traffic," or even then just do it for, even if they don't give you the affiliate kickback, learn how to create an email marketing sequence that sells that software, right? In that, you can prove through deliverables that sells, even if they're not giving you money, because, again, it's teaching you that sales process. Then, when you create your own, then you control the margins and everything, and it's really a plug-and-play scenario, because if you're promoting this software and it's something that you can do better, then you just plug in your own thing and be like, "Hey guys, I've now created my own. This is where you go." It's a good way to test things without, what happens with a lot of businesses, what happened with me a long time, is that you run to the end goal, you run to creating your own product, you run to creating some massive thing without properly testing it, and that's the biggest mistake ever, because you'll spend hours and hours, and sometimes it just flops. Kathleen: Yeah. I love this approach, because if anybody listens regularly to this podcast, they've probably heard me mention Joe Pulizzi's book Killing Marketing, and that's really the premise of his book. For a B2B businesses is, or really B2C, too, it's build an audience first, honestly. And then, the audience will tell you what your product should be through the dialogue they're having with you. And then, your business becomes monetizing that audience. Alex: Yes. Kathleen: But, in doing so, you have to do it in a way that also safeguards the interests of your audience, because if you're too spammy or too salesy, you drive your audience away, and if that's the base of your business, it's like shooting yourself in the foot. And so, for those B2B marketers that are interested in learning more about this, I would definitely recommend reading Killing Marketing by Joe Pulizzi, because that is the handbook for how to do this well in a B2B world. Alex's Pinterest Strategy Kathleen: But, so now that we've clarified monetization, let's dig into Pinterest a little bit. I'm so interested in hearing what you're doing here, because I'm a Pinterest user. I will admit I'm not a power user at all, by any stretch of the imagination. Every time I want to make some change in my house, I'll start a board. So it will be like, "Here's the driveway gates board, here's the board for outdoor shower inspiration." Or if I'm getting a new haircut, here's the haircuts board, or the recipe board. Alex: Yeah. Totally. Kathleen: But, sounds like this is a very different approach. So start from the beginning and describe to me what you're doing on Pinterest. Alex: So it really starts with the high-level of thinking about why people follow boards, or why people follow particular types of content. I'm into tattoos right now and really into motorcycles. I just got my license, very excited about it. So the things in the content of Pinterest that I'm personally following have to do with that, and Pinterest is sort of this curation place where you curate what you like into making it your own. I like a particular design of a tattoo, so I'm curating a bunch of those and putting those together, and it's all curated together. So, what you are doing, from a high-level business standpoint, is you are curating content around that target avatar. You are around that target person that you want to visit or come to your place. So for my business on Avocadu, our health blog, we're really in the women's weight loss space, right? So we curate everything from under the sun for the 45 to 55 year old woman who wants to lose weight, but is struggling to do that. So our entire design and everything is around curating content for that person. That's how you build up a big following and a big fanbase. Obviously, we'll get into the specifics and stuff, but that's how you want to think about it. That's how you want to approach Pinterest from that standpoint. What happens with businesses, and what happens with a lot of marketers and why they don't succeed on Pinterest is, well, number one, Pinterest is the red-headed stepchild of social media, right? Nobody really knows how to use it, it's kind of confusing, it's just very different. So it can throw people off. But, the second part is that they come in thinking that the same things that might work on something like Facebook apply there, and it's not true. It's a very different approach, and you have to know how the system works in order to have the success you can have, but once you can have success, you can have crazy success. We've had people go from zero visitors to 50 thousand visitors a month organically to their website with Pinterest within a month. Now that was a year or two ago, so the results are not always the same now, but you could still go from zero viewers to 20 thousand, 50 thousand within three months, with you doing and approaching the right strategy. Kathleen: So I'm going to pretend that I'm a business that's not on Pinterest. Well, I am a business, well, we might have Pinterest, but we don't do a lot with it. Alex: Yeah, yeah. Kathleen: So let's pretend we're starting from the beginning, and you mentioned beginning by identifying your avatar, or your target audience, in a very specific one, at that. And then, you go and you create your Pinterest account, and from my past experience with Pinterest, I know at least there are a lot of different ways you can slice it. You can have multiple boards. Alex: Yeah. How to Organize Your Pinterest Presence Kathleen: And how you decide thematically what goes on each of those probably could vary quite a bit. Can you talk a little bit about how you advise your clients to approach organizing their Pinterest presence? Alex: Mm-hmm (affirmative). So it's starts out high-level, so it just depends if you're running a personal thing or if you're running a business thing. So if you're starting out, let's do an example. It's always going to be easier for an example. I actually really like the idea of an e-commerce store, because I think it really highlights the differences between what you would typically market, like on Facebook versus Pinterest. So let's say you're coming on there, let's use my sister's actually, Live Luv Lavish, and what should would first start by doing is by creating group boards around keywords on Pinterest. Pinterest is a jQuery search engine. What that means is it's like a Google, it's like a YouTube. People type in the things that they want to see. Those things are served to them. That's, again, what makes Pinterest so amazing is it has organic content, has organic reach. Organic reach only happens through jQuery search. So, because of that, you would start by creating group boards around the things that people want, with the keywords that they're looking for. She sells natural cleaners, like organic soap. One word would be "natural organic cleaners." Another group board might be, most people who are going to buy these are homemakers, right? So something like "Designing your perfect home," right? These are the group boards that you're centering this content around. Remember, you're thinking about this avatar. Who is buying my product? Who is interested in what I have to sell and what I have to say? And that is how you start, by organizing it through keyword research, essentially, on Pinterest. You go in, you type in your topic, and the great part is Pinterest will serve a lot of different results right underneath of things people are typing in, so it gives you a really good outline of "here's what these people are interested in." Kathleen: Okay, that's interesting, because it really is essentially the same thing that any marketer should be doing outside of Pinterest, which is really understanding, given my target audience, what kind of content do I need to create at the top, middle and bottom of the funnel? Alex: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Using Pinterest To Do Keyword Research Kathleen: And so, it sounds like what you're saying is, with regular marketing and content creation, a lot of these people are going to places like Google Analytics and Google Trends and SEMrush and doing their keyword research on those kinds of platforms, but from what you're saying, it sounds like you can actually do your keyword research right in Pinterest. Is that correct? Alex: You do it right there. You can do it right there. Now, it's not going to give you the same stats and data, but it will give you ideas, and that's sort of what matters on Pinterest, because content can still go viral, as well as a Facebook, so it's more like creating the specific content around the avatar, and then getting in their heads, right? So, again, we go back to that example of Live Luv Lavish, we're talking about a homemaker. Let's say they have a son and, like me, he was always bringing home dirty sports equipment, right? So a great topic would be "what to do with your son's nasty sporting gear," and have a picture of hand holding a dirty sock, a dirty football sock, like mine. That would be a good example of something to start. Something that would do well on that platform. Creating Your Pinterest Boards Kathleen: Okay. So you identify your topics, your top, middle and bottom of the funnel topics. You create a board for each. Is there any kind of rule of thumb about if you're just starting, how many boards should you have? I'm sure the answer is, probably, it depends. Alex: Yeah, yeah. Kathleen: But, any guidance you can give to anyone? Alex: Yeah. We have very specific guidance in our course, and Lauren stays really up-to-date with the exact number of group boards, so I wouldn't want to talk out of place, but I would say at least 10 group boards around these specific topics that your audience is going to be interested in is a fantastic place to start. Kathleen: Now you just said something that I want to dig into a little bit deeper. You said "group boards." Alex: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Kathleen: So my understanding is, Pinterest, you have your regular straight up board where you, the person that created it, are the contributor. And then, are you referring to group boards where you create the board, and you contribute, but you open it up and invite others to contribute? Alex: I was actually referring to your own boards, but, as well, joining group boards is another huge strategy on Pinterest, joining group boards around the topics that, again, are relevant to your audience is a big way to get started. You can do that with tool like PINGROUPIE that will organize those group boards and show you which ones are most popular of that space, which groups boards were way more effective in way more important back in the day. They're a little less effective now, but they're still an important part of the process of really cultivating growing a solid Pinterest account. Kathleen: Okay. So you create your boards, and then, obviously, the next step is to start populating them with content- Alex: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Kathleen: -and I have a lot of a lot of questions here. Alex: Yeah, go for it. Creating Content for Your Pinterest Boards Kathleen: But, I'm going to just start with, talk me through what you tell people at this stage? Alex: Totally. So the first thing you're going to do is you're going to build it out with whatever content that you currently have. So whatever content you have, you have to start by creating Pins. There are images that are different size on Pinterest that work better than on a Facebook or an Instagram. I believe it's a thousand by 1,500 is the exact Pin dimensions, so it's a tall, long image. Again, another reason why most marketers and people give up on Pinterest and why you shouldn't, because that barrier to entry is there, and when there's a barrier to entry, we know that, beyond the barrier to entry are good things. So the barrier to entry is there to create the Pinterest images, and you would start by using specific Pinterest images for your target content. S o let's say you've written 10 different posts on different topics in your space. Or let's say, again, let's go back to that example, has created 10 different pieces of content. She would start by creating those Pinterest Pins and pinning them to the specific group boards that match that content. So, running it back, she has a group board named "all natural cleaners," right? So she would start by pinning her all natural cleaners on those group boards, and that would be the very, very first place that she would start. Kathleen: Okay. Now, I am not good at graphic design, and so my fall back for things like this, like Pinterest images, has always been Canva, which is great because it has templates that already know what sizes things should be. Are there any other particular tools that you recommend to people like me who are disasters when it comes to trying to go into graphic design programs? Alex: The start of how actually we got started back in 2015 was I was working on the blog and I was always interested in making an image for a program, and Lauren came over and looked over my shoulder and I was like, "Whoa, that is terrible," and I was like, "Yeah, it is terrible," and she just moved my chair over, was like, "Let me help you with that." So I, too, fall into that space of not knowing what to do. So the two strategies that I would have is, yeah, Canva's a great source, but especially for the busy marketer and busy business owner out there, Fiverr's amazing. Fiverr, $5 a Pin. It's something very cheap to get something that's actually pretty good quality. I'm sure that that is outsourced to the Philippines or something like that, but you will get great quality images for not a lot of money, and it can save you a lot of time and a lot of hassle, because, as well as just putting a Pin on each particular post, I'm going to get into the next part where you need to create multiple Pins around the same post, right? Because you're kind of split testing what works and what doesn't on there. So you're going to create four or five different images on one particular post to see which one works the best. So outsourcing that work to a place like Fiverr is a great resource. Kathleen: Interesting. Okay, so multiple images per post to see which one drives results. Alex: Yes. Kathleen: You Pin those. Obviously, you're creating these images, but you want them to live on the post so that you can pin from the post, so that when people click the image it takes them back to the post, correct? Alex: Yes, yes. You got that crazy Pinterest logic. You've got it down. Kathleen: Yeah. Otherwise you're driving traffic to your Pins, but it's not going anywhere. Alex: Right. Creating Copy For Pinterest Posts Kathleen: So, once you get the image on to Pinterest, are there other best practices as far as, do you use hashtags? Are there ways that you can use the copy that goes with the Pin to drive attention? Alex: The biggest things are having the words written on the Pin itself, having it written out. So if you have something like, again, "all natural," "the top 10 all natural cleaners," right? You want those big, bolded, easy, clear letters on there, so that when people are scrolling through their Pinterest feed, they see that. Pinterest, like everything else in marketing, in business, is a competition, so your click-through rate on Google is an easy example, right? So if my click-through rate is better, because I have a better title, Google will now favor that content, as long as we have the same read time and stuff like that. Same goes with Pinterest, right? When someone's scrolling through content, they're scrolling through and they see four different Pinterest images, right? So you have to stand out. That's your goal, is to stand out in the presence of somebody searching for your content. The easiest thing, and it's going to sound so dumb and so trivial, but it's to go on Pinterest, type in those things, look at what other people are pinning, and ask yourself the question, "Can I do it better?" And, "What would better serve this market? How can I make this image better or more interesting, or more clickable?" Those are the questions you want to ask, and then go create those things. If you do that, over a long period of time, you will be served very well. Video on Pinterest Alex: And, also, there's all sorts of new things. Pinterest just rolled out video, as well, which is going to be a huge opportunity for businesses. If you can produce videos and know how to produce videos, it's going to be a massive opportunity right now. Kathleen: I love what you talked about with finding what's already out there and doing it better, because it's the exact same advice that we give to people about creating content. If you're going to write an article about something, go to Google, find what's already showing up for that topic, and write something better, or don't write anything at all, because it's not going to get around. Alex: Yeah, or just don't, or just stop. Yeah, yeah. That was the simple process with even the product creation, was like go out there and see what products are available. Can you do it better? And then, there's a need for it. But, if you can't, do not. Don't- Kathleen: Yeah. Don't waste your time. Alex: Don't make something worse. Don't even bother. Kathleen: Yeah. Now, okay, when you said the word "video" and Pinterest in the same sentence, I was like, "Ah, we need to stop and talk about this," because I know my team, at IMPACT, is very invested in creating video. We have our own in-house video production team. So tell me more about video on Pinterest. Alex: Pinterest and video have been a long slog of a process. They tried to do this back in 2018 and just couldn't get it to work. I don't know exactly why they struggled for so long to get it, but they re-rolled it out earlier this year, and the initial results that people are getting have been really strong. It's a way to definitely stand out, like I said before, from the competition. So, again, if somebody's scrolling through and looking for all natural cleaners and they see four Pins and one is a video Pin of showing the cleaner and then spraying it and using it on something, obviously that's going to stand out by a large margin. So if you're able to produce videos on there, you already have your competitive advantage. Get your ass on Pinterest. It can serve you well. Kathleen: And especially when you think about the work that goes into creating good video. If you put all that time in and it feels like if there's just one more place you can put that video, get it out there, because it's all about distribution. Is it fair to say that, because this is so new, it's a little bit of the wild west in terms of best practices and what's going to work? Alex: All of Pinterest is the wild, wild west. Pinterest ads are the wild, wild west. Pinterest images are the, I love Pinterest, but they really struggle sometimes with just basic advertising things, the stuff that comes so inherently and so easy when you're on Facebook is not the same experience that you're going to have on Pinterest. But, again, these barrier to entries of, that make it a good thing, so yeah. It is the wild, wild west, but, again, there's really great rewards to the person and team that puts in the effort and time there. Shoppable Pins Kathleen: And hasn't Pinterest just, or are they in the process of introducing shoppable Pins? Alex: Again, this is one of those things that they've tried and fumbled, and they're there. They're there and I don't really have any good use cases of people doing it, but the one thing I have seen work really well. So back to Live Luv Lavish, because this is a great example. So she has a cleaner on sporting equipment. What's a great piece of content instead of just putting your product on Pinterest, would be to create some piece of content that that person would want. So I would create something like the five best sporting cleaners, and then list your product as number one on there and be like, "This is an awesome product, but here are some other ones that are really great." That is a really great way to do it on Pinterest, because people will share that content more than they will share something like a shoppable Pin. But, shoppable Pins do exist, and there are people that do well with it. They're not really in my circle, though. Getting Found on Pinterest Kathleen: Got it. Now, once somebody gets content up on their Pinterest account, are there tricks to getting it found and to getting that initial traction and getting seen? Alex: Not really. The biggest thing on Pinterest is this consistency of the platform. You'll see it on YouTube. If you're posting every Monday, YouTube will give you a little bump. The same with Google. If you're posting regularly or posting regular content, Google gives you a little nudge. They like that. They like fresh, they like new content. So that is what I would more say. You are essentially, there's this thought that I had when we were creating our initial Pinterest thing, it's called "shotgun theory." You know the difference between a rifle and a shotgun. A rifle, it shoots a singular bullet into a very small space, right? But, a shotgun, you spread out. The pellets explode and they spread out and they create a wide spread. Kathleen: That's the phrase "take a shotgun approach," which is- Alex: There you go. Exactly, exactly. And that's what you want to do. You want to spread out that content, because one of those things will go viral and go big. So all of the content is centered around that, right? That's why you're creating five different images, that's why you're pinning those 10 different posts, because, out of all of that, one of them will do well, but one of them will do really well, and that's the fun part. Kathleen: It does sound a little bit like, at this point, Pinterest is such a great opportunity purely because marketers haven't completely ruined it. They have some other platforms. Alex: Yeah, yeah. Like Facebook. Who Is - And Is Not - Right For Pinterest? Kathleen: I'm not saying get in there and ruin it, but there is this opportunity to be the first mover in your space for Pinterest. Is there anybody that Pinterest is not right for? Any type of business that it's not right for? Alex: I would say if you're really tech focused. I would say that Pinterest is going to be hard to come by. Pinterest has surprised me before. We have a client of ours who is in the health and wellness space. His name's Rusty Moore. A really good friend. And he got our Pinterest course way back in the day. It's a cool story, but I won't go too far into it. His blog is primarily, though, focused on men, and he was getting a million visitors a month on Pinterest to the male audience, because it was kind of underserved. So I wouldn't say that there are things that are never going to work on Pinterest, because he's kind of proof that you can make it work. I would say, though, that there are, a techy more focus is going to struggle more on there. Anything that's not visually stimulating will be a little bit more difficult. It's kind of the same as Instagram and these types of things where the things like recipes, or the things like travel photos. These images that are very visually stimulating give you a bump up and a leg up. But, I wouldn't say that there's too many topics that you couldn't work in. Lawyer, we have someone who made a lot of money with law. She teaches people how to make disclaimer pages and stuff like that, properly Kathleen: Fun. Alex: I know, right? Super exciting stuff, but she's doing really well with it. Kathleen: But, I think it all comes back to how creative you get about the content, because I don't remember the name of the product, but I read something once about, it was a blender, and the company that makes this blender created this completely viral marketing campaign, because their messaging was all about how it's very powerful and it can blend almost anything. They were sticking things like hammers in the blender, and things you would never put in a blender-they were putting in and making videos of it blending and chopping the things. And so I feel like if you're, even with tech companies, maybe you're not going to do your straight up marketing of your server, but if you can think of a creative way to demonstrate the power of your product or your service, then who knows? Alex: I couldn't agree more. I think it's all about the creativity of the individual. It's the same thing with monetizing a blog or website. I feel like it comes down to creativity. I know of an instance of a guy making $20 grand a month on his blog about herbs. And by herbs I mean the weeds you pick your backyard, and he's able to make, what, more than most high-paid lawyers, online, selling herbs. Kathleen: Wow. Alex: So it's more like how you creatively approach, again, that target person that you're trying to reach. So, yeah. If you had a tech company, or those sorts of things, I'm sure there's a way to work it in, if they can work in the blender industry. Kathleen: Well, and if you're listening and you have an idea, Tweet me or send message, because I want to hear it. Alex: Yeah, for sure. How Pinterest Has Helped Grow Alex's Business Kathleen: I guess, to bring this back to where the rubber meets the road, can you talk a little bit about the specific results that you've seen? You mentioned that you get 3.1 monthly views from Pinterest. What does that mean for your business? Alex: We can use Avocadu as an example. We get 4.4 million viewers, translates to about 200 thousand organic visitors to our blog and our website, and that is the primary traffic source driving in all of the income for Avocadu. We get Google traffic, as well, but that's a blog that does $10 grand to $20 grand per month, really on autopilot without us having to touch and do much to it. So there are some specific stats that you can expect. Out of your total impressions on Pinterest, which is what you're seeing, the 3.1 million, I can probably get, what, 15% of that to actually click or click over 15%, 20% of that. But, again, that represents a substantial amount of traffic. And then, as well, I think something that's so much more valuable than that is the fact that it's organic and searchable over time, because nothing allows you to scale more than having consistent traffic coming in and knowing that it's coming in every month, because it frees you up to focus on things like optimization and email marketing and these types of things. Kathleen: Yeah, that's pretty incredible. You mentioned 200 thousand organic website visits a month. Is that right? Alex: Yes. Kathleen: I'm sure there are lot of people listening who would just love to have 200 thousand visits to their website a month, period. Alex: Right. Kathleen: Who cares where it comes from? Alex: Right, yeah. Kathleen: So that's pretty great. Alex: And that's another good point. The average Pinterest user is something in the $70 grand per year ballpark, way above average mean and average income, so they're a good demographic of people who actually like to spend money. They're not like, I don't know, your StumbleUpon audience. I don't know much about, I just assume that it might be not as spending focused. Let's say that. Kathleen: Yeah. That's great. Well, I'm now totally trying to process all the ideas I have for what I can do on Pinterest. Alex: Good, good. Kathleen: Every time I do a podcast, my team probably groans, because I come back and I'm like, "Here's 10 more things we should be doing." Alex: Ideas. Ideas. Kathleen's Two Questions Kathleen: Exactly. People who listen know that I always ask the same two questions of every guest I have and I would love to hear your answers. The first of those being, company or individual, who do you think is doing inbound marketing really well right now? Alex: I would say, let's talk about one on Pinterest. Somebody I've been super impressed with is Kate Ahl. We have recently used her team to outsource some of the things on Pinterest, to outsourced some of the creation of the content and organizing of the content. I think she does it very well. She has a Pinterest podcast. It has this really seamless approach of getting people in, learning the best about the platform. I've been really impressed with her efforts, especially as of recent. I was always a fan of DigitalMarketer. I was always a fan of Ryan Deiss's team. I always thought they provided some interesting stuff that, I don't know, that definitely impacted our business. We learned about Pinterest because of being in the DigitalMarketer Lab back in the day, because they had posted something on, like, "Yeah, we're getting tons of visitors on Pinterest," and I was like, "All right, let's check this out." Kathleen: Well, I have to agree with you on Ryan Deiss. It was funny, you live in Austin. We were just talking about this before we started recording. I was in Austin a few weeks ago, and it was to visit and meet with DigitaMarketer. Alex: Oh, it was? Kathleen: Yeah. Alex: Oh, yes, yes, yes. Yeah. Totally. Kathleen: We're a partner of theirs- Alex: Oh, awesome. Kathleen: -and we love those guys. Alex: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kathleen: So shout-out to Ryan Deiss and Marcus Murphy and Michael Meola and the whole team over there. Justin Rondeau, I just had him on my podcast a few days ago. Alex: Oh, nice. I've always been so impressed by Deiss's ability to see into the future a little bit. Obviously, sometimes, he gets it wrong, but I go did go to Traffic And Conversion Summit, not last year, but the year before, and it's always interesting. I love his looking glass of the marketing landscape and seeing his opinions on it. I think he really does understand marketing at an unbelievable level. Kathleen: Yeah, he's a smart guy, for sure. Alex: He is. Kathleen: Now, Kate Ahl, spell her last name for me so that I know how to find her. Alex: I think it's A-H-L. Kathleen: Okay. Alex: Yeah. Kathleen: Perfect. Alex: Yeah. Kathleen: Just one I hadn't heard before and I'm so excited to have one that's a Pinterest person so we can see some more examples of that in action. Alex: Yeah, for sure. For the people who are interested in Pinterest, we have a Pinterest course that teaches people how to do it, called "Pinterest Traffic Avalanche." As well as her stuff, she sees it from a very big business standpoint. She manages tons of different companies and their Pinterest accounts and stuff like that. So, because of her looking glass, being able to see into all of their stats and these types of things, it's the same way we're able to see for bloggers and small business owners all of their results. She can, not predict the future, but she's always fresh to date on the best content on there. How to Connect With Alex Kathleen: That's great. Now, you mentioned some of the courses that you have. If somebody's listening and they want to learn more about blogging, the stuff that you guys teach, or they want to learn more about some of the other things, like the Pinterest course, what's the best way for somebody listening to find and connect with you online? Alex: There's two ways that I'd send them, and it would either depend if you're a video person or if you're written blog post. If you are a written blog post type person, createandgo.com is where we blog at. We have two epic posts, one on how to start a blog, and then one on how to make money blogging. And that level, that stepping stone strategy that I just talked about on where you need to start and what's your next steps and will pinpoint exactly where you're at and what you need to do next, that is on there. There's a link at the top. You'll be able to find it pretty easily. The other thing is if you are more of a video person, and if you're listening to podcasts, you might like to just play it and listen to it. We have a lot of fans that do that. We have a big YouTube, a big YouTube channel, we have a YouTube channel, 58 thousand subscribers. It's doing well. I actually just recently posted the video version of the how too make money blogging. Again, really breaks down this whole thing. But, we have tons of YouTube videos on there. A lot of people who buy our products, they say they just binge watch the videos. And what's cool about it is you can see the first video I did, maybe three years ago, where I look like a mess, I am in Nicaragua and I have very long hair and haven't shaved in a while, and you can listen to this kid talk about blogging and succeeding with, but it's fun to look back on. Kathleen: That's so cool. Where were you in Nicaragua? Alex: We were in, oh my god, one of the, it's been a while. Kathleen: Was it San Juan Del Sur? Alex: Oh, so it was close. Now I see you're familiar. Kathleen: Were you surfing? Alex: Oh, absolutely. The surf [crosstalk 00:42:50]. Kathleen: I don't surf, but I went on my honeymoon to a place right near San Juan Del Sur and I loved it. It was amazing. Alex: Yeah. Okay. I've stayed there twice for a month at a time. One was a WiFiTribe. Another one was another group, but, yeah, the second time we stayed right by San Juan Del Sur and the Malibu resorts up there, and it was wild. It was a great- Kathleen: It's a cool spot, and most Americans hear Nicaragua, and they're like, "Wait, what? Nicaragua?" But, it's amazing. Alex: Yeah. Have one of their $3 tacos and it will change your mind. Kathleen: Yes. Alex: One dollar beer, $3 tacos. It's, yeah, pretty great. Kathleen: It's pretty great. Well, this has been so much fun, Alex. Thank you for joining me. I have, again, head is bursting with Pinterest ideas. Alex: For sure. You Know What To Do Next... Kathleen: If you're listening and you enjoyed this episode, you learned something, as usual, I would really appreciate it if you would give the podcast as five star review on Apple Podcasts, and if you know somebody else who's doing kick-ass inbound marketing work, Tweet me at WorkMommyWork because they could be my next guest. Alex: Five stars, do it. Kathleen: Yes. Alex: Right there. Takes two seconds. Pick up your phone right now, I want you to do that. I'll walk you through it. Kathleen: I love it. Thank you, Alex. Alex: Thank you, too. 

This short and sweet episode of The Digital Marketer Podcast is brought to you from the Traffic & Conversion Summit. In this episode, Jarrod Glandt, VP of Sales at Cardone Enterprises, talks with DigitalMarketer’s Head of Business Development and Partnerships, Marcus Murphy. He shares his wisdom on sales, getting hired for your dream job, and what he learned at T&C that he’ll be implementing when he gets back to the office.   IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN: How to hire your first sales person and figure out the right compensation based off of how much your business is making How Jarrod landed his position as VP of Sales for Cardone Enterprises Jarrod’s big takeaway from T&C—you don’t have to always change everything, look into the fine details of your systems to find the improvement that could change your business   LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Jarrod on LinkedIn Cardone University Grant Cardone 10x Growth Conference Traffic & Conversion Summit Thanks so much for joining us this week. Want to subscribe to The DigitalMarketer Podcast? Have some feedback you’d like to share? Connect with us on iTunes and leave us a review! iTunes not your thing? Find us on Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or at DigitalMarketer.com.

Marcus Murphy From Digital Marketer - The 5 Key Steps To Optimize Sales Navigator And How To Use It To Develop Long Term Business Relationships Links Mentioned: Click here to download the shownotes Marcus Murphy LinkedIn Profile Marcus Murphy Digital Marketer Blogs The 10-Point LinkedIn Audit www.GetMeToDone.com www.Productiveinsights.com www.PremiumProductivity.com www.CallAshRoy.com www.Youtube.com/ProductiveInsights Related Episodes: 170. Ryan Deiss From Digital Marketer Reveals The 5-Step Conversion Funnel That Turbo-Charges Your Business Growth 171. Email Marketing Success Strategies Revealed with Co-Founder of Digital Marketer Richard Lindner 172. Strategic Partnerships And How To Use Them To Grow Your Business Fast With Roland Frasier From Digital Marketer 173. The 5 Step Process To Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile And Attract Your Ideal Clients With Marcus Murphy From Digital Marketer 075. Joe Pulizzi — Founder of Content Marketing Institute — Does Your Content Fit Into Your Buyer’s Journey? 001. Neil Patel (Kissmetrics Founder) On How To Make Better Decisions Around Client Selection, Branding and Investing Transcript Ash Roy: Welcome back to the productive insights podcast. This is ash Roy, the founder of productive insights.com, and I'm super excited to have Marcus Murphy back to talk about LinkedIn sales navigator. Now, if you haven't listened to part one of this two part conversation, definitely head over to www.ProductiveInsights.com/173 where we talk about how to set up your LinkedIn profile in five steps and how to use LinkedIn to have meaningful sales conversations and change the conversation around selling. Marcus has shared some awesome tips in that episode around it, how to actually not be the sleazy, disliked salesperson, but rather be the more empathetic, ethical, diagnostically focused salesperson who understands his or her prospects problem and then looks to solve it in a meaningful way and LinkedIn is an awesome tool to do that. To definitely check out productive insights.com forward slash one 73. Now, in this second part of this two part conversation, which is www.ProductiveInsights.com/174 where you can access all the show notes. Marcus is going to share some absolute awesome ideas around how to use sales navigator, the paid version of LinkedIn to take things up a notch, so welcome back, Marcus. Marcus Murphy: Thank you so much for having me back. I think of that foundational piece. If you haven't listened to the first episode where we go through building kind of that all star profile and really making sure that your professional brand is intact. That's the first one I would do before hopping into this paid version because there's so many things you can do for free before paying for some of the tools, but if you're going to pay for anything, the sales navigator tool is by far the way to go. Ash Roy: Absolutely. Let's jump into the content. So how is sales navigator different from the free version of LinkedIn and why would we want to use sales navigator What benefits would it give us Marcus Murphy: Sales navigator is basically a way to aggregates opportunity. What it's doing is it's literally combing through, allowing you to put in targets and allowing you to essentially put in who you would like to connect with so you're being more intentional about who you're targeting very specifically and what it does is it's giving you recommendations and it's also a search feature is probably it has an advanced feature for it search. It's allowing you to really narrow down profiles and be able to connect in new ways with the platform so it's using its software to be able to pull in, allow you to identify exactly the Avatar and the client profile that you're looking for...

Marcus Murphy From Digital Marketer - The 5 Key Steps To Optimize Sales Navigator And How To Use It To Develop Long Term Business Relationships Links Mentioned: Click here to download the shownotes Marcus Murphy LinkedIn Profile Marcus Murphy Digital Marketer Blogs The 10-Point LinkedIn Audit www.GetMeToDone.com www.Productiveinsights.com www.PremiumProductivity.com www.CallAshRoy.com www.Youtube.com/ProductiveInsights Related Episodes: 170. Ryan Deiss From Digital Marketer Reveals The 5-Step Conversion Funnel That Turbo-Charges Your Business Growth 171. Email Marketing Success Strategies Revealed with Co-Founder of Digital Marketer Richard Lindner 172. Strategic Partnerships And How To Use Them To Grow Your Business Fast With Roland Frasier From Digital Marketer 173. The 5 Step Process To Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile And Attract Your Ideal Clients With Marcus Murphy From Digital Marketer 075. Joe Pulizzi — Founder of Content Marketing Institute — Does Your Content Fit Into Your Buyer’s Journey? 001. Neil Patel (Kissmetrics Founder) On How To Make Better Decisions Around Client Selection, Branding and Investing Transcript (This transcript has been auto-generated. Artificial Intelligence is still in the process of perfecting itself. There may be some errors in transcription): Ash Roy: Welcome back to the productive insights podcast. This is ash Roy, the founder of productive insights.com, and I'm super excited to have Marcus Murphy back to talk about LinkedIn sales navigator. Now, if you haven't listened to part one of this two part conversation, definitely head over to www.ProductiveInsights.com/173 where we talk about how to set up your LinkedIn profile in five steps and how to use LinkedIn to have meaningful sales conversations and change the conversation around selling. Marcus has shared some awesome tips in that episode around it, how to actually not be the sleazy, disliked salesperson, but rather be the more empathetic, ethical, diagnostically focused salesperson who understands his or her prospects problem and then looks to solve it in a meaningful way and LinkedIn is an awesome tool to do that. To definitely check out productive insights.com forward slash one 73. Now, in this second part of this two part conversation, which is www.ProductiveInsights.com/174 where you can access all the show notes. Marcus is going to share some absolute awesome ideas around how to use sales navigator, the paid version of LinkedIn to take things up a notch, so welcome back, Marcus. Marcus Murphy: Thank you so much for having me back. I think of that foundational piece. If you haven't listened to the first episode where we go through building kind of that all star profile and really making sure that your professional brand is intact. That's the first one I would do before hopping into this paid version because there's so many things you can do for free before paying for some of the tools, but if you're going to pay for anything, the sales navigator tool is by far the way to go. Ash Roy: Absolutely. Let's jump into the content. So how is sales navigator different from the free version of LinkedIn and why would we want to use sales navigator What benefits would it give us Marcus Murphy: Sales navigator is basically a way to aggregates opportunity. What it's doing is it's literally combing through, allowing you to put in targets and allowing you to essentially put in who you would like to connect with so you're being more intentional about who you're targeting very specifically and what it does is it's giving you recommendations and it's also a search feature is probably it has an advanced feature for it search. It's allowing you to really narrow down profiles and be able to connect in new ways with the platform so it's using its software to be able to pull in, allow you to identify exactly the Avatar and the client profile that you're ...

The 5 Step Process To Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile And Attract Your Ideal Clients With Marcus Murphy From Digital Marketer Links Mentioned: Click here to download the podcast shownotes Marcus Murphy LinkedIn Profile The 10-Point LinkedIn Audit www.GetMeToDone.com www.Productiveinsights.com www.PremiumProductivity.com www.CallAshRoy.com www.Youtube.com/ProductiveInsights Related Episodes: 170. Ryan Deiss From Digital Marketer Reveals The 5-Step Conversion Funnel That Turbo-Charges Your Business Growth 171. Email Marketing Success Strategies Revealed with Co-Founder of Digital Marketer Richard Lindner 172. Strategic Partnerships And How To Use Them To Grow Your Business Fast With Roland Frasier From Digital Marketer Key Points and Insights 05:04 - Why it's important to have an empathetic approach to sales (and how LinkedIn helps) 07:53 - How to use LinkedIn to develop a diagnostic approach to problem-solving 11:27 - What makes LinkedIn different from other social media platforms 13:24 - Quality vs Quantity when it comes to LinkedIn connections 13:52 - "Conversation is the new lead" - Ryan Deiss 17:20 - Specific aspects of your LinkedIn profile you should optimize first 29:33 - Is it a good practice to use video to increase your LinkedIn content ranking? 35:28 - How to use micro videos for content promotion 37:31 - Wardrobe: What to wear when creating videos on LinkedIn 40:21 - How to optimize the "experience section" on your LinkedIn profile 42:25 -How to optimize the "skills and endorsement" section on the LinkedIn profile 43:41 - How to get more endorsements on LinkedIn 45:40 - What to do with the recommendation/ review section on your LinkedIn profile 47:49 - Key Insights and Action Steps Transcript The 5-Step Process To Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile With Marcus Murphy From Digital Marketer Ash Roy: Hello and welcome to the productive insights podcast. This is your host, Ash Roy and the founder of productive insights.com. I'm delighted to have a special guest, Marcus Murphy, and he's somebody I've been very keen to have on for quite a while because he is here to change the conversation around sales by changing the sales conversation and specifically, we're going to be talking about LinkedIn and how to achieve and more authentic approach to sales around LinkedIn. Now, just to put a bit of context around this, there is a lot of negative hype around sales in general and probably for good reason because unfortunately sales has been associated with being pushy and slimy, but both Marcus and I feel that it doesn't have to be that way, that sales is about solving a problem and it's about being empathetic in today's world. Marcus and I failed. That. Being strategic, helpful and empathetic is what helps us to win as salespeople, and more importantly, it helps the customer to win. So, I'm delighted to welcome Marcus Murphy from digital marketer Dot Com. Welcome, Marcus. Marcus Murphy: Hey, thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it. Ash Roy: Oh, it's great to have you on the show, man. Let's start by talking about why it's important to have an empathetic approach to sales and how linked in helps us to achieve this in particular. Marcus Murphy: First of all, this topic is fantastic. The reason why it's fantastic is because every single person, whether you admit that you're a salesperson or not, if you want a company out or you are right, because fundamentally you need to win new business. You need to get new clients, new customers. Um, so everybody needs to kind of hear this good news of being able to bring sales back into wha...

The 5 Step Process To Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile And Attract Your Ideal Clients With Marcus Murphy From Digital Marketer Links Mentioned: Click here to download the podcast shownotes Marcus Murphy LinkedIn Profile The 10-Point LinkedIn Audit www.GetMeToDone.com www.Productiveinsights.com www.PremiumProductivity.com www.CallAshRoy.com www.Youtube.com/ProductiveInsights Related Episodes: 170. Ryan Deiss From Digital Marketer Reveals The 5-Step Conversion Funnel That Turbo-Charges Your Business Growth 171. Email Marketing Success Strategies Revealed with Co-Founder of Digital Marketer Richard Lindner 172. Strategic Partnerships And How To Use Them To Grow Your Business Fast With Roland Frasier From Digital Marketer Key Points and Insights 05:04 - Why it's important to have an empathetic approach to sales (and how LinkedIn helps) 07:53 - How to use LinkedIn to develop a diagnostic approach to problem-solving 11:27 - What makes LinkedIn different from other social media platforms 13:24 - Quality vs Quantity when it comes to LinkedIn connections 13:52 - "Conversation is the new lead" - Ryan Deiss 17:20 - Specific aspects of your LinkedIn profile you should optimize first 29:33 - Is it a good practice to use video to increase your LinkedIn content ranking? 35:28 - How to use micro videos for content promotion 37:31 - Wardrobe: What to wear when creating videos on LinkedIn 40:21 - How to optimize the "experience section" on your LinkedIn profile 42:25 -How to optimize the "skills and endorsement" section on the LinkedIn profile 43:41 - How to get more endorsements on LinkedIn 45:40 - What to do with the recommendation/ review section on your LinkedIn profile 47:49 - Key Insights and Action Steps Transcript (This transcript has been auto-generated. Artificial Intelligence is still in the process of perfecting itself. There may be some errors in transcription): The 5-Step Process To Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile With Marcus Murphy From Digital Marketer Ash Roy: Hello and welcome to the productive insights podcast. This is your host, Ash Roy and the founder of productive insights.com. I'm delighted to have a special guest, Marcus Murphy, and he's somebody I've been very keen to have on for quite a while because he is here to change the conversation around sales by changing the sales conversation and specifically, we're going to be talking about LinkedIn and how to achieve and more authentic approach to sales around LinkedIn. Now, just to put a bit of context around this, there is a lot of negative hype around sales in general and probably for good reason because unfortunately sales has been associated with being pushy and slimy, but both Marcus and I feel that it doesn't have to be that way, that sales is about solving a problem and it's about being empathetic in today's world. Marcus and I failed. That. Being strategic, helpful and empathetic is what helps us to win as salespeople, and more importantly, it helps the customer to win. So, I'm delighted to welcome Marcus Murphy from digital marketer Dot Com. Welcome, Marcus. Marcus Murphy: Hey, thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it. Ash Roy: Oh, it's great to have you on the show, man. Let's start by talking about why it's important to have an empathetic approach to sales and how linked in helps us to achieve this in particular. Marcus Murphy: First of all, this topic is fantastic. The reason why it's fantastic is because every single person, whether you admit that you're a salesperson or not, if you want a company out or you are right, because fundamentally you need to win new business. You need to get new clients, new customers. Um, so everybody needs to kind of hear this good news of being able to bring sales back into what I believe it was meant for, which was connecting and making genuine and empathetic connections ...

The Buffalo Bills got the chance to play spoiler this week, in a hard fought, defensive chess match with the Detroit Lions, whose outside chance at a playoff spot was taken from their grasp. Bills fans were sent home happy after a TD from Robert Foster, and a missed game winning field goal opportunity by Detroit. Although Buffalo played with a depleted Backfield, Keith Ford, Marcus Murphy and Josh Allen helped out-duel Detroit's Rushing attack, and Allen hung tough with Matthew Stafford. There were many bright spots offensively and defensively in this nail biter of a game.  While the season's results have not been what the Bills Mafia may have hoped for, there is reason for optimism going forward. The rebuild of this team by Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott has been heading in the right direction. Next year, the Bills Cap Space will be much more freed up to get the right pieces in play for Buffalo's very bright future. I for one, am excited to see what this team looks like next season. Join Matt Johnson in his first episode of the Billswire Podcast as he gives his takes on the season thus far, and, going forward!

Tim Heaney and John Halpin look at the Week 15 Saturday/Sunday games. Players include Sam Darnold, Robby Anderson, Elijah McGuire, Antonio Callaway, Tim Patrick, DaeSean Hamilton, Phillip Lindsay,  Derrick Henry, Evan Engram, Dalvin Cook, Latavius Murray, Frank Gore, Kalen Ballage, Kenyan Drake, Adrian Peterson, Leonard Fournette, Vernon Davis, Blake Jarwin, Marlon Mack, Joe Mixon, Tyler Boyd, Jordy Nelson, Tarik Cohen, Jordan Howard, Aaron Rodgers, Aaron Jones, Jamaal Williams, Marcus Murphy, Robert Foster, Josh Allen, Zach Zenner, Kenny Golladay, Lamar Jackson, Gus Edwards, Kenneth Dixon, Mike Evans, Peyton Barber, Tevin Coleman, David Johnson, Matt Ryan, Jaylen Samuels, James Conner, Julian Edelman, James White, Matt Breida, Nick Mullens, George Kittle, Doug Baldwin, Mike Davis, Josh Adams, Wendell Smallwood, Nick Foles, Gerald Everett, Todd Gurley, Josh Reynolds, Jared Goff, Cam Newton, Ian Thomas, Drew Brees, Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jake Letarski and John Halpin make their free-agent recommendations, and discuss what players you can drop. Players include Justin Jackson, Josh Allen, Derek Carr, Josh Johnson, Jameis Winston, Kenneth Dixon, Ito Smith, Derrick Henry, LeSean McCoy, Chris Ivory, Marcus Murphy, Damien Williams, Zach Zenner, Stevan Ridley, Elijah McGuire, LeGarrette Blount, Peyton Barber, Zay Jones, Robert Foster, Curtis Samuel, Jamison Crowder, Dede Westbrook, DaeSean Hamilton, Tim Patrick, Kenny Stills, Dante Pettis, Calvin Ridley, Kenny Golladay, Ian Thomas, Anthony Firkser, Antonio Gates and Blake Jarwin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here is the FFfaceoff's Top Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Adds for Week 15 featuring Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Marcus Murphy, Dante Pettis, Chris Conley, Elijah McGuire, Derrick Henry, Ian Thomas and so many more to help you dominate your leagues. If you need any additional NFL Fantasy Waiver Wire advice, feel free to ask your questions in the comment section or at our social media handle. For more 2018 fantasy football advice and strategy, check out GridironExperts.com featuring their official world class staff rankings here https://gridironexperts.com/fantasy-football-rankings.#Week15WaiverWireAdvice #FantasyFootball #Week15 #NFL #NFLFantasy***While you're here, please don't forget to subscribe, follow, like, comment and share this video.

Bills Insider Chris Brown gave us a live practice update (8:48). Former Bills RB Kenneth Davis talked about Leading the Charge at Monday night's game and his relationship with HOFer RB Thurman Thomas (48:31). Bills RB Marcus Murphy talked about how his season is going so far and preparing to face the Patriots (1:39:42).

Marcus Murphy is an actor and model who resides in Washington, D.C. He is 24 years old and has been doing entertainment for the past five years. His first introduction to the entertainment industry was a print ad known as K2 Zombie. That print ad opened doors for acting.   After working diligiently, Marcus' acting coach, Kelsey Collie, worked to train Marcus and as a result he was booked for his first job at DCTV.  The film was called, "Through the Eyes of the Children," where he played the lead actor. In addition, Marcus has played supporting roles in the award winning series, The Beat and Path, Walk of Shame, Black Eyed Children--where he was a fan favorite--Gehenna, Lake House, Welcome to America, Slumber Party Slaughter Party,  Writers Block and Black Dad. Murphy is currently working on a feature film called, The Pk’s, A Bum Rap, and Path of the Beast.  In this episode, Marcus discusses the importance of persistence and grit as he reveals his own personal story where he is forced to make a family decision that would determine the course of his trajectory as a individual who needs to show up both professionally and emotionally.

We discussed our biggest takeaways from the preseason opener against the Panthers. Bills RB Marcus Murphy talked about his touchdown in the first preseason game and what he brings to the roster (32:34). NFL Film's Greg Cosell shared his thoughts on the rookie quarterbacks around the league (50:43). Bills Insider Chris Brown gave us his take on the first preseason game (1:35:16).

LinkedIn has over half a billion users and is on its way their goal of accumulating 3 billion users worldwide and Marcus Murphy has seen its potential from the start. Marcus is on the Customer Advisory Board of LinkedIn and is the Director of Monetization at DigitalMarketer. He joins Jenna and Garrett to talk about how you should be using the platform to represent yourself and your company, the available features to capitalize on right now, and why it’s not too late to jump on the LinkedIn bandwagon. It is more than a digital space to list accomplishments, and holds the potential to grow an audience, build a brand, and monetize off of it. IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN: Surround yourself with great people and mentors who will accelerate your growth rather than hinder your progress Best practices for solopreneurs who don’t have a full sales team What a successful profile photo looks like that will help grow your business and influence The future of LinkedIn and the content we’ll be seeing soon  

This week on the Radar we had the privilege of interviewing a legend. Alfa Anderson is the original member of the 80’s hit group Chic and also sang back-up for Luther Vandross. We also interviewed actor Marcus Murphy. Check out the new single from Alfa Anderson titled “Perfectly Chic”! And lastly we got to congratulate the Carters, creator of the “Not Reaching” device for their viral success on the infamous Shaderoom on IG.

Welcome back for Episode 16! It's my pleasure to welcome the man, the master, the inspiration Kevin Bennison back onto the Optimise Me Now! Podcast for this value packed, content rich, not to be missed episode! Kevin is a master when it comes to leadership and communication, and was kind enough to dedicate two and a half hours of his day to the show to discuss our keys learnings, take aways, and thoughts on the amazing 'Expert Empires' event we attended together in London on 16th and 17th May 2018.  This was an event like no other, with a line up of speakers unrivaled - we heard from brilliant minds from all over the world such as the likes of Grant Cardone, Marcus Murphy, Judymay Murphy, Ryan Deiss, Lucy Johnson, Ryan Pinnick, and the man himself - Nick James, founder of the event, and of the company that made it all possible; Seriously Fun Business.  Enjoy - this is an extremely content rich episode so have a notepad and pen ready to take notes! To find out more about the 'Expert Empires' events and Nick James' company 'Seriously Fun Business' CLICK HERE Learn more about SWL Training, get access to their FREE resources, and find out how they can help you CLICK HERE To connect with Kevin on Facebook CLICK HERE   And don't forget to check out my blog at Little Grey Says Thanks for listening - and remember... stay OPTIMISED!   "Find your Passion, Live with Purpose, Make an Impact!"   Don't forget to subscribe and come and say hello to us on our social media pages!! You can find out more about Jamie on Facebook, at his blog and at Optimise Me!   www.optimisemenow.com

It was Jim and Martha for a “Together-on-Tuesdays” Edition of the Program at the Brangenberg's welcomed Dr Jack Taylor and Dr Marcus Murphy on-air to talk about why they are here in Lubbock to participate in the Kingdom Business Workshop – and why YOU should join the next one.

It was Jim and Martha for a “Together-on-Tuesdays” Edition of the Program at the Brangenberg's welcomed Dr Jack Taylor and Dr Marcus Murphy on-air to talk about why they are here in Lubbock to participate in the Kingdom Business Workshop – and why YOU should join the next one. The post Day Two in Lubbock appeared first on iWork4Him Podcast.

Marcus Murphy is the director of sales and monetization for DigitalMarketer, which hosts the Traffic and Conversion Summit for marketers each year. Leading an umbrella department for sales, customer success, business development, partner programs and channels, and strategic partnerships, Marcus helps restore, teach, and uplevel sales professionals.

Attention Baby Boomers: Don't get left behind with antiquated marketing campaigns and sales conversion funnels. Join us for part one of our special event coverage from the Traffic & Conversion Summit 2018. Guest Co-host and CEO of Chet Holmes International, Amanda Holmes, joins Alan Taylor as we hear from game-changers in digital marketing. David Cancel and David Gerhardt of Drift explain how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing online customer service. Next, DigitalMarketer Director of Sales and Monetization, Marcus Murphy, calls for businesses everywhere to get real and be vulnerable on social media to capture consumer hearts. Then, Founder and CEO of The Abraham Group, Jay Abraham, gives Baby Boomers an action plan to connect with and mentor Millennials. [00:00:00] Drift AI Bots Level-Up Corporate Communication [00:07:16] Customer Service that Appeals to Millennials [00:11:30] Ditch the Script and Humanize Your Sales Pitch [00:18:21] Are We Facing an Emerging Leadership Crisis? [00:27:33] Unlocking the Potential of Millennials at Work [00:33:22] Guiding and Motivating the Next Generation

Ep 25: Silver Edition    In Episode 25, We dive into some great content and insightful advice from several of our Podcast guests that were featured in 2017.      The episode begins with Founder of Raven Tools, John Henshaw, and what marketing tools leaders can implement in their reports. Re-platforming was a subject that Jeff Cash touched on in Episode 3 as he discussed the pros and cons and what challenges may develop.    Throughout the episode our featured guests share key insights on marketing strategy for startups, integrating Sales & Marketing teams, and what a Global eCommerce strategy entails. Towards the end of Episode 25, Cristina Ceresoli gives us a look at the state of retail and where it's headed. Marcus Murphy and Tyler brought the jokes and also discussed where Digital Marketing is headed. Andrea Ward shares insight on how eCommerce is changing rapidly and considering the right eCommerce platform is key to a company’s success.   Join Tyler and Michelle in this Silver Episode on Kickstarting Brands, Marketing Trends, Global eCommerce Strategies and what’s next in Digital Marketing.     Timestamps    00:00 – Intro 01:25 – Ep 1: John Henshaw - Founder of Raven Tools 07:30 – Ep 3: Jeff Cash - Liquidity Services 10:23 – Ep 7: Jamie Alber - Digital Golf Warehouses   13:30 – Ep 10: Scott Yoffe - LA Chargers  17:28 - IRCE 18:48 – Ep 12: Dan Farris - Kickstarting a Brand 21:24 – Ep 13: Mike McMillian - Dream CSX 23:33 – Ep 14: Charlie Cole - Tumi | Samsonite 27:44 – Ep 15: Josh Weum - Google   30:22 – Ep 16: Andrew Malcolm - Evernote 32:09 – Ep 17: Paul Dailey - Puma 35:36 – Ep 18: Ashok Kamal - Tech Coast Angels 40:13 – Ep 19: James Martinez - Safari 41:30 – Ep 21: Cristina Ceresoli - NRF  44:39 – Ep 22: Marcus Murphy - Digital Marketer  47:44 – Ep 24: Andrea Ward - Magento 51:38 – Outro      IRCE - CHICAGO: https://www.irce.com    10% off conference passes (Exhibit Hall Only passes excluded) and will be valid starting on 1/1/2018.  Code: LIONS18  Lion’s Share Marketing Podcast Learn More About Tyler & Kyle Music Intro Music – Colony House – Buy “2:20” on iTunes Outro Music – Skillet – Buy “Lions” on iTunes

Ep 22: Ninjas, Airplane Cocktails, AOL Instant Messenger, and Digital Marketing | Marcus Murphy In Episode 22, Marcus Murphy, Vice President of Monetization at Digital Marketer, shares his expertise on several topics from recruiting the right talent, sales and marketing teams, and what’s working across the marketing landscape. Marcus starts us off by talking about the birth of Digital Marketer and his path to his position at DM. He shares his expertise on hiring the right candidates, what healthy marketing and sales teams look like, and how critical recruiting the right talent is for an organization. Marcus explains that having the right people at the start can have a great impact on the future. He goes on to discuss the relationships he has with his top performers and team leaders at Digital Marketer and dishes on how he integrates Digital Marketer’s marketing practices with his own team. Tyler and Marcus also discuss what’s working across the marketing landscape and how marketing leaders are succeeding. He also talks of the differences between Sales and Marketing teams and how the two go hand in hand, yet at the same time have completely different roles. Marcus shares his thoughts on social media platforms and which popular platform is destined to fail. He gives us a snippet of whats to come at the Traffic and Conversion Summit. Marcus ends the conversation by giving his key advice on hiring talented and thoughtful leaders that will have a great impact on your marketing and sales teams. Join Tyler, Michelle, and Marcus in this conversation on Digital Marketer practices, hiring the right talent, and the marketing landscape at-large. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 00:49 – What’s in the News | Black Friday & Cyber Monday 04:50 – Featured Guest Intro | Marcus Murphy 05:48 – Marcus’ role at Digital Marketer 06:22 – Birth of Digital Marketer 08:24 – Digital Marketer and their Products 11:00 – Ninjas and Airplane Cocktails 12:33 – Hiring Marketing and Sales Teams 15:18 – Recruiting the Right Talent 19:20 – Integrating DM’s Marketing Practices 23:00 – Top Performers and Team Leaders 27:15 – Perpetual Traffic 29:02 – What’s Working Across the Marketing Landscape 33:45 – Sales Vs Marketing 35:09 – Internal Systems at Digital Marketer 38:41 – Impact of Drift 40:53 – Marketing Strategy with Fidelitas Development 42:55 – LinkedIn Advisory Board 44:21 – Social Media Platforms 49:05 – The Demise of AIM 51:38 – What is Destined to Fail: SnapChat 54:29 - Slack and AIM 57:34 - Traffic and Conversion Summit 1:02:48 - Key Take Away 1:03:20 - Outro   Featured Guest   Marcus Murphy | VP of Monetization at Digital Marketer LinkedIn  Twitter   Lion’s Share Marketing Podcast Learn More About Tyler & Kyle Music Intro Music – Colony House – Buy “2:20” on iTunes Outro Music – Skillet – Buy “Lions” on iTunes

As DigitalMarketer's Director of Sales and Monetization (or "Monetisation", now that they've expanded to London), Marcus has been responsible for accelerating revenue growth and sales productivity for their flagship product, DigitalMarketer HQ, and its Certified Partner program. Marcus previously worked the same sales magic at Infusionsoft and Yelp, and learned that sales and marketing teams need to be best friends, or your business is going nowhere fast. This week, Lucas and Jim chat with Marcus about "conversational selling", how one post on LinkedIn led to a huge opportunity, and how to most effectively bridge the sales and marketing divide in your business. To learn more about DigitalMarketer HQ: http://go.vzfy.co/GetDMHQTrial Full Transcript: http://growth.show/5 Be sure to subscribe to get future updates and don't forget to enter our launch contest running through November 30, 2017. Here is the link to enter: https://go.thegrowthpodcast.com/giveaway

Marcus shares some stories from his time at Enterprise and his highest value customers.

Houston and Noah recap the weekend series loss to Auburn featuring our pitching woes and the impact of Hunter Stovall's injury. We also give you the bio of the new MSU Men's basketball strength coach and talk about out new football commits, Jett Johnson and Marcus Murphy. 

The boys break down everything from the Saints awful 27-13 loss to the Houston Texans plusRoster cuts to 75Is Saints pass rush worst in NFL?Sean Payton admits Saints 2014 draft suckedRalph has a Junior Galette 'Sack Truther' quizIs Snead making the team?Is it time to write off Jairus Byrd?Is the redzone offense really a concern?How awesome will Marcus Murphy be?53 man roster predictionsTwitter questions Donate just $1 a month and become a Saints Happy Hour Patron for special benefits or make 1 time donation so the audio quality stays awesome and we have a podcast. Don't forget to download our Podbean, Stitcher, or Andriod app! Itunes.

431-05.12.2015New Orleans Pelicans & SaintsOnline radio show focused on Pelicans and Saints news.Today's show features Mississippi State Head Football Coach Dan Mullen talking about the Saints new defensive tackle Kaleb Eulls, and also the radio voice of the Missouri Tigers Mike Kelly talks about Saints draft pick Marcus Murphy.31:46