Podcasts about Pipedrive

Most companies don't have a lead problem, they have a follow-up problem. In this episode of Sharkpreneur, Seth Greene interviews Jason Kramer, Founder & CEO at Cultivize, who breaks down how smart CRM strategy can transform “maybe someday” prospects into real revenue. Jason shares how his team helps manufacturing, roofing, finance, and home service businesses design, implement, and actually use CRM systems like HubSpot and Pipedrive so salespeople stop dropping the ball. With real-world case studies, including a roofing company that turned old quotes into seven-figure sales, Jason shows what's possible when technology, strategy, and authentic follow-up finally line up. Key Takeaways: → Why most growing businesses don't really know which marketing efforts are working, and how a properly set up CRM changes that. → The three simple criteria that define an ideal client for a CRM overhaul and why company size and sales team count matter. → The common problem shared by manufacturing, roofing, finance, and home service companies is that they send hundreds of proposals a year. → A behind-the-scenes case study of a roofing company that revived ignored quotes with a thoughtful, automated follow-up sequence. → How to design automated emails that feel genuine and personal, not robotic or canned, while still running on autopilot. Jason Kramer is the founder of Cultivize, a consulting firm that builds smart CRM strategies for business consultants and growth advisors. With over 20 years in marketing and business development, he helps experts transform their lead management systems into scalable growth engines. His process integrates CRM automation with email nurturing to create trackable, ROI-focused results for B2B and consulting clients. Jason's background includes work with global giants like Virgin Atlantic and Johnnie Walker, but today his focus is on supporting strategic advisors and fractional leaders who need visibility into what's working—and what's not—in their sales process. When he's not helping clients streamline their revenue systems, he's on the Hudson River with his family. Connect With Jason Kramer: Website: https://cultivize.com/ X: https://x.com/cultivize Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cultivize/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonleighkramer/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Build a Winning Strategy for Your B2B Brand In a fast-paced business environment, marketers, agencies, and consultants must proactively help clients differentiate their brands in the marketplace. One way of doing this is by analyzing the strategy, messaging, and brand positioning, both for their own brands and key competitors. So how can teams conduct this kind of brand research and competitive analysis in a way that's insightful, efficient, and actionable for planning the next steps? Tune in as the B2B Marketers on Mission Podcast presents the Marketing DEMO Lab Series, where we sit down with Clay Ostrom (Founder, Map & Fire) and his SmokeLadder platform designed for brand research, messaging and positioning analysis, and competitive benchmarking. In this episode, Clay explained the platform's origins and features, emphasizing its role in analyzing brand positioning, core messaging, and competitive landscapes. He also stressed the importance of clear, consistent brand positioning and messaging, and how standardized make it easier to compare brands across multiple business values. Clay also highlighted the value of objective, data-driven analysis to identify brand strengths, weaknesses, and gaps, and how tools like SmokeLadder can save significant time in gathering insights to build trust with clients. He provided practical steps for generating, refining, and exporting brand messaging and analysis for internal or client-facing use. Finally, Clay also discussed how action items and recommendations generated from analysis can immediately support smart brand strategy decisions and expedite trust-building with clients. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4_o1PzF1Kk Topics discussed in episode: [1:31] The purpose behind building SmokeLadder and why it matters for B2B teams [12:00] A walkthrough of the SmokeLadder platform and how it works [14:51] SmokeLadder's core features [17:48] How positioning scores and category rankings are calculated [35:36] How differentiation and competitors are analyzed inside SmokeLadder [44:07] How SmokeLadder builds messaging and generates targeted personas [50:24] The key benefits and unique capabilities that set SmokeLadder apart Companies and links: Clay Ostrom Map & Fire SmokeLadder Transcript Christian Klepp  00:00 In an increasingly competitive B2B landscape, marketers, agencies and consultants, need to proactively find ways to help their clients stand out amidst the digital noise. One way of doing this is by analyzing the strategy, messaging and positioning of their own brands and those of their competitors. So how can they do this in a way that’s insightful, efficient and effective? Welcome to this first episode of the B2B Marketers in the Mission podcast Demo Lab Series, and I’m your host, Christian Klepp. Today, I’ll be talking to Clay Ostrom about this topic. He’s the owner and founder of the branding agency Map and Fire, and the creator of the platform Smoke Ladder that we’ll be talking about today. So let’s dive in. Christian Klepp  00:42 All right, and I’m gonna say Clay Ostrom. Welcome to this first episode of the Demo Lab Series. Clay Ostrom  00:50 I am super excited and very honored to be the first guest on this new series. It’s awesome. Christian Klepp  00:56 We are honored to have you here. And you know, let’s sit tight, or batten down the hatches and buckle up, and whatever other analogy you want to throw in there, because we are going to unpack a lot of interesting features and discuss interesting topics around the platform that you’ve built. And I think a good place to start, perhaps Clay before we start doing a walk through of the platform is, but let’s start at the very beginning. What motivated you to create this platform called Smoke Ladder. Clay Ostrom  01:31 So we should go all the way back to my childhood. I always dreamed of, you know, working on brand and positioning. You know, that was something I’ve always thought of since the early days, but no, but I do. I own an agency called Map and Fire, so I’ve been doing this kind of work for over 10 years now, and have worked with lots and lots of different kinds of clients, and over that time, developed different frameworks and a point of view about how to do this kind of work, and when the AI revolution kind of hit us all, it just really struck me that this was an opportunity to take a lot of that thinking and a lot of that, you know, again, my perspective on how to do this work and productize that and turn it into something that could be used by people when we’re not engaged with them, in some kind of service offering. So, so that was kind of the kernel of it. I actually have a background in computer science and product. So it was sort of this natural Venn diagram intersection of I can do some product stuff, I can do brand strategy stuff. So let’s put it together and build something. Christian Klepp  02:46 And the rest, as they say, is history. Clay Ostrom  02:49 The rest, as they say, is a lot of nights and weekends and endless hours slaving away at trying to build something useful. Christian Klepp  02:58 Sure, sure, that certainly is part of it, too. Clay Ostrom  03:01 Yeah. Christian Klepp  03:02 Let’s not keep the audience in suspense for too long here, right? Like, let’s start with the walk through. And before you share your screen, maybe I’ll set this up a little bit, right? Because you, as you said, like, you know, you’ve built this platform. It’s called Smoke Ladder, which I thought was a really clever name. It’s, you like to describe it as, like, your favorite SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tool, but for brand research and analysis. So I would say, like, walk us through how somebody would use this platform, like, whether they be a marketer that’s already been like in the industry for years, or is starting out, or somebody working at a brand or marketing agency, and how does the platform address these challenges or questions that people have regarding brand strategy, analysis and research? Clay Ostrom  03:49 Yeah, yeah. I use that analogy of the SEO thing, just because, especially early on, I was trying to figure out the best way to describe it to someone who hasn’t seen it before. I feel like it’s a, I’m not going to fall into the trap of saying, this is the only product like this, but it has its own unique twists with what it can do. And I felt like SEO tools are something everybody has touched at one point or another. So I was using this analogy of, it’s like the s, you know, Semrush of positioning and messaging or Ahrefs, depending on your if you’re a Coke or Pepsi person. But I always felt like that was just a quick way to give a little idea of the fact that it’s both about analyzing your own brand, but it’s also about competitive analysis and being able to see what’s going on in the market or in your landscape, and looking specifically at what your competitors are doing and what their strengths and weaknesses are. So does that resonate with you in terms of, like, a shorthand way, I will say, I don’t. I don’t say that. It’s super explicitly on the website, but it’s been in conversation. Christian Klepp  05:02 No, absolutely, absolutely, that resonated with me. The only part that didn’t resonate with me is that I’m neither a coke or a Pepsi person. I’m more of a ginger ale type of guy. I digress. But yeah, let’s what don’t you share your screen, and let’s walk through this, right? Like, okay, if a marketing person were like, use the platform to do some research on, perhaps that marketers, like own company and the competitors as well, right? Like, what would they do? Clay Ostrom  05:32 Yeah, so that’s, that is, like you were saying, there’s, sort of, I guess, a few different personas of people who would potentially use this. And initially I was thinking a little more about both in house, people who, you know, someone who’s working on a specific brand, digging really deep on their own brand, whether they’re, you know, the marketing lead or whatever, maybe they’re the founder, and then this other role of agency owners, or people who work at an agency where they are constantly having to look at new brands, new categories, and quickly get up to speed on what those brands are doing and what’s the competitive space look like, you know, for that brand. And that’s something that, if you work at an agency, which obviously we both have our own agencies, we do this stuff weekly. I mean, every time a new lead comes in, we have to quickly get up to speed and understand something about what they do. And one of the big gaps that I found, and I’d be curious to kind of hear your thoughts on this, but I’ve had a lot of conversations with other agency owners, and I think one of the biggest gaps is often that brands are just not always that great at explaining their own brand or positioning or differentiation to you, and sometimes they have some documentation around it, but a lot of times they don’t. A lot of it’s word of mouth, and that makes it really hard to do work for them. If whatever you’re doing for them, whether that’s maybe you are working on SEO or maybe you’re working on paid ads or social or content, you have to know what the brand is doing and kind of what they’re again, what their strengths and weaknesses are, so that you can talk about that. I mean, do you come across that a lot in your work? Christian Klepp  07:33 How do I say this without offending anybody? I find, I mean jokes aside, I find, more often than not, in the especially in the B2B space, which is an area that I operate in, I find 888 point five times out of 10. We are dealing with companies that have a they, have a very rude, rudimentary, like, framework of something that remotely resembles some form of branding. And I know that was a very long winded answer, but it’s kind of sort of there, but not really, if you know what I mean. Clay Ostrom  08:17 Yeah. Christian Klepp  08:17 And there have been other extreme cases where they’ve got the logo and the website, and that’s as far as their branding goals. And I would say that had they had all these, this discipline, like branding system and structure in place, then people like maybe people like you and I will be out on a job, right and it’s something, and I’m sure you’ve come across this, and we’ll probably dig into this later, but like you, it’s something I’ve come across several times, especially in the B2B space, where branding is not taken seriously until it becomes serious. I know that sounds super ironic, right, but, and it’s to the point of this platform, right, which we’re going to dig into in a second, but it’s, it’s things, for instance, positioning right, like, are you? Are you, in fact, strategically positioned against competitors? Is your messaging resonating with, I would imagine, especially in the B2B context, with the multiple group target groups that you have, or that your company is, is going after? Right? Is that resonating, or is this all like something that I call the internal high five? You’ve this has all been developed to please internal stakeholders and and then you take it to market, and it just does not, it just does not resonate with the target audience at all. Right? So there’s such a complex plethora of challenges here, right? That people like yourself and like you and I are constantly dealing with, and I think that’s also part of the reason why I would say a platform like this is important, because it helps to not just aggregate data. I mean, certainly it does that too, but it helps. To put things properly, like into perspective at speed. I think that might be, that might be something that you would have talked about later, but it does this at speed, because I think, from my own experience, one of the factors in our world that sometimes works against us is time, right? Clay Ostrom  10:19 No, I totally agree, yeah, and, you know, we’re lucky, I guess would be the word that we are often hired to work on a company strategy with them and help them clarify these things. Christian Klepp  10:33 Absolutely. Clay Ostrom  10:34 There are a million other flavors of agencies out there who are being hired to execute on work for a brand, and not necessarily being brought in to redefine, you know what the brand, you know they’re positioning and their messaging and some of these fundamental things, so they’re kind of stuck with whatever they get. And like you said, a lot of times it’s not much. It might be a logo and a roughly put together website, and maybe not a whole lot else. So, yeah, but I think your other point about speed is that was a huge part of this. I think the market is only accelerating right now, because it’s becoming so much easier to start up new companies and new brands and new products. And now we’ve got vibe coding, so you can technically build a product in a day, maybe launch it the next day, start marketing it, you know, by the weekend. And all of this is creating noise and competition, and it’s all stuff that we have to deal with as marketers. We have to understand the landscape. We’ve got to quickly be able to analyze all these different brands, see where the strengths and weaknesses are and all that stuff. So… Christian Klepp  11:46 Absolutely. Clay Ostrom  11:46 But, yeah, that, I think that the speed piece is a huge part of this for sure. Christian Klepp  11:51 Yeah. So, so we’re okay, so we’re on the I guess this, this will probably be the homepage. So just walk us through what, what a marketing person would do if they want to use this platform, yeah? Clay Ostrom  12:00 So the very first thing you do when you come in, and this was when I initially conceived of this product, one of the things that I really wanted was the ability to have very quick feedback, be able to get analysis for whatever brand you’re looking at, you know, right away to be able to get some kind of, you know, insight or analysis done. So the first thing you can do, and you can do this literally, from the homepage of the website, you can enter in a URL for a brand, come into the product, even before you’ve created an account, you can come in and you can do an initial analysis, so you can put in whatever URL you’re looking at, could be yours, could be a competitor, and run that initial analysis. What we’re looking at here, this is, if you do create an account, this is, this becomes your, as we say, like Home Base, where you can save brands that you’re looking at. You can see your history, all that good stuff. And it just gives you some quick bookmarks so that you can kind of flip back and forth between, maybe it’s your brand, maybe it’s some of the competitors you’re looking at and then it gives you just some quick, kind of high level directional info. And I kind of break it up into these different buckets. Clay Ostrom  13:23 And again, I’d love to kind of hear if this is sort of how you think about it, too. But there’s sort of these different phases when you’re working on a brand. And again, this is sort of from an agency perspective, but you first got the sort of the research and the pitch piece. So this is before maybe you’re even working with them. You’re trying to get an understanding of what they do. Then we have discovery and onboarding, where we’re digging in a little bit deeper. We’re trying to really put together, what does the brand stand for, what are their strengths and weaknesses? And then we have the deeper dive, the strategy and differentiation. And this is where we’re really going in and getting more granular with the specific value points that they offer, doing some of that messaging analysis, finding, finding some of the gaps of the things that they’re talking about or not talking about, and going in deeper. So it kind of break it up into these buckets, based on my experience of how we engage with clients. Does that? Does that make sense to you, like, does that? Christian Klepp  14:28 It does make sense, I think. But what could be helpful for the audience is because this, this almost looks like it’s a pre cooked meal. All right, so what do we do we try another I mean, I think you use Slack for the analysis. Why don’t we use another brand, and then just pop it into that analysis field, and then see what it comes out with. Clay Ostrom  14:51 So the nice thing about this is, if you are looking at a brand that’s been analyzed, you’re going to get the data up really quickly. It’ll be basically pop up instantly. But you can analyze a brand from scratch as well. Just takes about a minute or so, basically, to kind of do some of the analysis. So for the sake of a demo, it’s a little easier just to kind of look at something that we’ve got in there. But if it’s a brand that you know, maybe you’re looking at a competitor for one of your brands, you know, there’s a good chance, because we’ve got about 6000 brands that we’ve analyzed in here, that there’s a good chance there’ll be some info on them. But so this is pipe drive. So whoever’s not familiar Pipedrive is, you know, it’s a CRM  (Customer Relationship Management), it’s, it’s basically, you know, it’s a lighter version of a HubSpot or Salesforce basically track deals and opportunities for business, but this so I flipped over. I don’t know if it was clear there, but I flipped over to this brand brief tab. And this is where we we get, essentially, a high level view of some key points about the brand and and I think about this as this would be something that you would potentially share with a client if you were, you know, working with them and you wanted to review the brand with them and make sure that your analysis is on point, but you’ll see it’s kind of giving you some positioning scores, where you rank from a category perspective, message clarity, and then we’ve got things like a quick overview, positioning summary, who their target persona is, in this case, sales manager, sales operation lead, and some different value points. And then it starts to get a little more granular. We get into like key competitors, Challenger brands. We do a little SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis, and then maybe one of the more important parts is some of these action items. So what do we do with this? Yeah, and obviously, these are, these are starting points. This is not, it’s not going to come in and, you know, instantly be able to tell you strategically, exactly what to do, but it’s going to give you some ideas of based on the things we’ve seen. Here are some reasonable points that you might want to be looking at to, you know, improve the brand. Make it make it stronger. Christian Klepp  17:13 Gotcha. Gotcha. Now, this is all great clay, but like, I think, for the benefit of the audience, can we scroll back up, please. And let’s just walk through these one by one, because I think it’s important for the audience/potential future users,/ customers of Smoke Ladder, right? To understand, to understand this analysis in greater depth, and also, like, specifically, like, let’s start with a positioning score right, like, out of 100 like, what is this? What is this based on? And how was this analyzed? Let’s start with that. Clay Ostrom  17:48 Yeah, and this is where the platform really started. And I’m going to actually jump over to the positioning tab, because this will give us the all the detail around this particular feature. But this is, this was where I began the product this. I kind of think of this as being, in many ways, sort of the heart and soul of it. And when I mentioned earlier about this being based on our own work and frameworks and how we approach this, this is very much the case with this. This is, you know, the approach we use with the product is exactly how we work with clients when we’re evaluating their positioning. And it’s, it’s basically, it’s built off a series of scores. And what we have here are 24 different points of business value, which, if we zoom in just a little bit down here, we can see things like reducing risk, vision, lowering cost, variety, expertise, stability, etc. So there’s 24 of these that we look at, and it’s meant to be a way that we can look across different brands and compare and contrast them. So it’s creating, like, a consistent way of looking at brands, even if they’re not in the same category, or, you know, have slightly different operating models, etc. But what we do is we go in and we score every brand on each of these 24 points. And if we scroll down here a little bit, we can see the point of value, the exact score they got, the category average, so how it compares against, you know, all the other brands we’ve analyzed, and then a little bit of qualitative information about why they got the score. Christian Klepp  19:27 Sorry, Clay, Can I just jump in for a second so these, these attributes, or these key values that you had in the graph at the top right, like, are these consistent throughout regardless of what brand is being analyzed, or the least change. Clay Ostrom  19:42 It’s consistent. Christian Klepp  19:43 Consistent? Clay Ostrom  19:44 Yeah, and that was one of the sort of strategic decisions we had to make with the product. Was, you know, there’s a, maybe another version of this, where you do different points depending on maybe the category, or, you know, things like that. But I wanted to do it consistent because, again, it allows us to look at every brand through the same lens. It doesn’t mean that every brand you know there are certain points of value that just aren’t maybe relevant for a particular brand, and that’s fine, they just won’t score as highly in those but at least it gives us a consistent way to look at so when you’re looking at 10 different competitors, you know you’ve got a consistent way to look at them together,. Christian Klepp  20:26 Right, right, right. Okay, okay, all right, thanks for that. Now let’s go down to the next section there, where you’ve got, like this table with like four different columns here. So you mentioned that these are being scored against other brands in their category. Like, can you share it with the audience? Like, how many other brands are being analyzed here? Clay Ostrom  20:51 Yeah, well, it depends on the category. So again, we’ve got six, you know, heading towards 7000 brands that we’ve analyzed collectively. Each category varies a little bit, but, you know, some categories, we have more brands than others. But what this allows us to do is, again, to quickly look at this and say, okay, for pipe drive, a big focus for pipe drive is organization, simplification. You know, one of their big value props is we’re an easier tool to use than Salesforce or HubSpot. You can get up to speed really quickly. You don’t have all the setup and configurations and all that kind of stuff. So this is showing us that, yes, like their messaging, their content, their brand, does, in fact, do a good job of making it clear that simplicity is a big part of pipe drive’s message. And they do that by talking about it a lot in their messaging, having case studies, having testimonials, all these things that support it. And that’s how we come up with these scores. Is by saying, like the brand emphasizes these points well, they talk about it clearly, and that’s what we base it on. Christian Klepp  22:04 Okay, okay. Clay Ostrom  22:06 But as you come, I was just gonna say as you come down here, you can see, so the green basically means that they score well above average for that particular point. Yellow is, you know, kind of right around average, or maybe slightly above, and then red means that they’re below average for that particular point. So for example, like variety of tools, they don’t emphasize that as much with pipe drive, maybe compared to, again, like a Salesforce or a HubSpot that has a gazillion tools, pipe drive, that’s not a big focus for them. So they don’t score as highly there, but you can kind of just get a quick view of, okay, here are the things that they’re really strong with, and here are the things that maybe they’re, you know, kind of weak or below average. Christian Klepp  22:58 Yeah, yeah. Well, that’s certainly interesting, because I, you know, I’ve, I’ve used the, I’ve used the platform for analyzing some of my clients, competitor brands. And, you know, when I’m looking at this, like analysis with the scoring, with the scoring sheet, it, I think it will also be interesting perhaps in future, because you’ve got a very detailed breakdown of, okay, the factors and how they’re scored, and what the brand value analysis is also, because, again, in the interest of speed and time, it’d be great if the platform can also churn out maybe a one to two sentence like, summary of what is this data telling us, right? Because I’m thinking back to my early days as a product manager, and we would spend hours, like back then on Excel spreadsheets. I’m dating myself a little bit here, but um, and coming up with this analysis and charts, but presenting that to senior management, all they wanted to know was the one to two sentence summary of like, come on. What are you telling me with all these charts, like, what is the data telling you that we need to know? Right? Clay Ostrom  24:07 I know it’s so funny. We again, as strategists and researchers, we love to nerd out about the granular details, but you’re right. When you’re talking to a leader at a business, it does come down to like, okay, great. What do we do? And so, and I flipped back over to slacks. I knew I had already generated this but, but we’re still in the positioning section here, but we have this get insights feature. So basically it will look at all those scores and give you kind of, I think, similar to what you’re describing. Like, here’s three takeaways from what we’re seeing. Okay, okay, great, yeah, so we don’t want to leave you totally on your own to have to figure it all out. We’ll give you, give you a little helping hand. Christian Klepp  24:53 Yeah. You don’t want to be like in those western movies, you’re on your own kid. Clay Ostrom  24:59 Yeah. We try not to strand you again. There’s a lot of data here. I think that’s one of the strengths and and challenges with the platform, is that we try to give you a lot of data. And for some people, you may not want to have to sift through all of it. You might want just sort of give me the three points here. Christian Klepp  25:19 Absolutely, absolutely. And at the very least they can start pointing you in the right direction, and then you could be, you could then, like, through your own initiative, and perhaps dig a little bit deeper and perhaps find some other insights that may be, may be relevant, right? Clay Ostrom  25:35 Totally. Christian Klepp  25:36 Hey, it’s Christian Klepp here. We’ll get back to the episode in a second. But first, I’d like to tell you about a new series that we’re launching on our show. As the B2B landscape evolves, marketers need to adapt and leverage the latest marketing tools and software to become more efficient. Enter B2B Marketers on a Mission Marketing Demo Lab where experts discuss the latest tools and software that empower you to become a better B2B marketer. Tune in as we chat with product experts. Provide unbiased product reviews, give advice and deliver insights into real world applications and actionable tips on tools and technologies for B2B marketing. Subscribe to the Marketing Demo Lab, YouTube channel and B2B Marketers on a Mission, on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Christian Klepp  26:21 All right. Now, back to the show, if we can, if we could jump back, sorry, to the, I think it was the brand brief, right? Like, where we where we started out, and I said, let’s, let’s dig deeper. Okay, so then, then we have, okay, so we talked about positioning score. Now we’re moving on to category rank and message clarity score. What does that look like? Clay Ostrom  26:41 Yeah. So the category rank is, it’s literally just looking at the positioning score that you’ve gotten for the brand and then telling you within this category, where do you sort of fall in the ranking, essentially, or, like, you know, how do we, you know, for comparing the score against all the competitors, where do you fall? So you can see, with Slack, they’re right in the middle. And it’s interesting, because with a product like Slack, even though we all now know what slack is and what it does and everything. Christian Klepp  27:18 Yeah. Clay Ostrom  27:19 The actual messaging and content that they have now, I think maybe doesn’t do as good of a job as it maybe did once upon a time, and it’s gotten as products grow and brands grow, they tend to get more vague, a little more broad with what they talk about, and that kind of leads to softer positioning. So that’s sort of what we’re seeing reflected here. And then the third score is the message clarity score, which we can jump into, like, a whole different piece. Christian Klepp  27:48 Four on a tennis not a very high score, right? Clay Ostrom  27:52 Yeah. And again, I think it’s a product, of, we can kind of jump into that section. Christian Klepp  27:57 Yeah, let’s do that, yeah. Clay Ostrom  27:59 But it’s, again, a product, I think of Slack being now a very mature product that is has gotten sort of a little vague, maybe a little broader, with their messaging. But the message clarity score, we basically have kind of two parts to this on the left hand side are some insights that we gather based on the messaging. So what’s your category, quick synopsis of the product. But then we also do some things, like… Christian Klepp  28:33 Confusing part the most confusing. Clay Ostrom  28:36 Honestly to me, as I get I’d love to hear your experience with this, but coming into a new brand, this is sometimes one of the most enlightening parts, because it shows me quickly where some gaps in what we’re talking about, and in this case, just kind of hits on what we were just saying a minute ago. Of the messaging is overloaded with generic productivity buzzwords, fails to clearly differentiate how Slack is better than email or similar tools, etc. But also, this is another one that I really like, and I use this all the time, which is the casual description. So rather than this technical garbage jargon, you know, speak, just give me. Give it to me in plain English, like we’re just chatting. And so this description of it’s a workplace chat app for teams to message, collaborate, share files. Like, okay, cool. Like, yeah, you know, I get it. Yeah, I already know what slack is. But if I didn’t, that would tell me pretty well. Christian Klepp  29:33 Absolutely, yeah, yeah. No, my experience with this is has been, you know, you and I have been in the branding space for a while. So for the trained eye, when you look at messaging, you’ll know if it’s good or not, right. And we come I mean, I’m sure you do the same clay, but I also come to my own like conclusions based on experience of like, okay, so why do I think that that’s good messaging, or why do I think that that’s confusing messaging? Or it falls short, and why and how can that be improved? But it’s always good to have validation with either with platforms like this, where you have a you have AI, or you have, you have a software that you can use that analyzes, like, for example, like the messaging on a website, and it dissects that and says, Well, okay, so this is what they’re getting, right? So there’s a scoring for that, so it’s in the green, and then this is, this is where it gets confusing, right? So even you run that through, you run that through the machine, and the machine analyzes it as like, Okay, we can’t clearly, clearly define what it is they’re doing based on the messaging, right? And for me, that’s always a it’s good. It’s almost like getting a second doctor’s opinion, right? And then you go, Aha. So I we’ve identified the symptoms now. So let’s find the penicillin, right? Like, let’s find the remedy for this, right? Clay Ostrom  30:56 Yeah, well, and I like what you said there, because part of the value, I think, with this is it’s an objective perspective on the brand, so it doesn’t have any baggage. It’s coming in with fresh eyes, the same way a new customer would come into your website, where they don’t know really much about you, and they have to just take what you’re giving at face value about what you present. And we as people working on brands get completely blinded around what’s actually working, what’s being communicated. There’s so much that we take for granted about what we already know about the brand. And this comes in and just says, Okay, I’m just, I’m just taking what you give me, and I’m going to tell you what I see, and I see some gaps around some of these things. You know, I don’t have the benefit of sitting in your weekly stand up meeting and hearing all the descriptions of what you’re actually doing. Christian Klepp  31:59 I’m sorry to jump in. I’m interested to know, like, just, just based on what we’ve been reviewing so far, like, what has your experience been showing this kind of analysis to clients, and how do they respond to some of this data, for example, that you know, you’re walking us through right now? Clay Ostrom  32:18 Yeah, I think it’s been interesting. Honestly, I think it can sometimes feel harsh. And I think again, as someone who’s both run an agency and also built worked on brands, we get attached to our work on an emotional level. Christian Klepp  32:42 Absolutely. Clay Ostrom  32:42 Even if we think about it as, you know, this is just work, and it’s, you know, whatever, we still build up connections with our work and we want it to be good. And so I think there’s sometimes a little bit of a feeling of wow, like that’s harsh, or I would have expected or thought we would have done better or scored better in certain areas, but that is almost always followed up with but I’m so glad to know where, where we’re struggling, because now I can fix it. I can actually know what to focus on to fix, and that, to me, is what it’s all about, is, yes, there’s a little bit of feelings attached to some of these things, maybe, but at the end of the day, we really want it to be good. We want it to be clear. We don’t want to be a 4 out of 10. We want to be a 10 out of 10. And what specifically do we need to do to get there? And that’s really what we’re trying to reveal with this. So I think, you know, everybody’s a little different, but I would say the reactions are typically a mix of that. It’s like, maybe an ouch, but a Oh, good. Let’s work on it. Christian Klepp  33:55 Absolutely, absolutely. Okay. So we’ve got brand summary, we’ve got fundamentals, then quality of messaging is the other part of it, right? Clay Ostrom  34:02 So, yeah, so this, this is, this is where the actual 4 out of 10 comes. We have these 10 points that we look at and we say, Okay, are you communicating these things clearly? Are you communicating who your target customer is, your category, your offering, where you’re differentiated benefits? Do you have any kind of concrete claim about what you do to support you know what you’re what you’re selling? Is the messaging engaging? Is it concise? You’ll see here a 7% on concise. That’s basically telling us that virtually no brands do a good job of being concise. Only about 7% get a green check mark on this, and kind of similar with the jargon and the vague words big struggle points with almost every brand. Christian Klepp  34:55 Streamline collaboration. Clay Ostrom  34:58 So we can see here with Slack. You know some of the jargon we got, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), MQLs (Marketing Qualified Lead), if you’re in the space, you could argue like, oh, I kind of know what those things are. But depending on your role, you may not always know. In something like Salesforce marketing cloud, unless you’re a real Salesforce nerd, you probably have no idea what that is. But again, it’s just a way to quickly identify some of those weak points, things that we could improve to make our message more clear. Christian Klepp  35:27 Yes, yes. Okay, so that was the messaging analysis correct? Clay Ostrom  35:33 Yeah. Christian Klepp  35:33 Yeah. Okay. So what else have we got? Clay Ostrom  35:36 Yeah, so I think one other thing we could look at just for a sec, is differentiation, and this is this kind of plays off of what we looked at a minute ago with the positioning scores. But this is a way for us to look head to head with two different brands. So in this case, we’ve got Slack in the red and we’ve got Discord in the greenish blue. And I think of these, these patterns, as sort of the fingerprint of your brand. So where you Where are you strong? Where are you weak? And if we can overlay those two fingerprints on top of each other, we can see, where do we have advantages, and where does our competitor have advantages? So if we come down, we can sort of see, and this is again, for the nerds like me, to be able to come in and go deep, do kind of a deep dive on specifically, why did, why does Discord score better than Slack in certain areas. And at the bottom here we can see a kind of a quick summary. So slack is stronger in simplification, saving time, Discord has some better messaging around generating revenue, lowering costs, marketability. But again, this gives us a way to think about what are the things we want to double down on? So what do we want to actually be known for in the market? Because we can’t be known for everything. You know, buyers can maybe only remember a couple things about us. What are those couple things where we’re really strong, where we really stand out, and we’ve got some separation from the competitors. Christian Klepp  37:18 Right, okay, okay, just maybe we take a step back here, because I think this is great. It’s very detailed. It gets a bit granular, but I think it’s also going back to a conversation that you and I had previously about, like, Okay, why is it so important to be armed with this knowledge, especially if you’re in the marketing role, or perhaps even an agency talking to a potential client going in there already armed with the information about their competitors. And we were talking about this being a kind of like a trust building mechanism, right? For lack of a better description, right? Clay Ostrom  38:03 Yeah, I think to me, what I like about this, and again, this does come out of 10 years of doing work, this kind of work with clients as well, is it’s so easy to fall into a space of soft descriptions around things like positioning and just sort of using vague, you know, wordings or descriptions, and when you can actually put a number on it, which, again, it’s subjective. This isn’t. This isn’t an objective metric, but it’s a way for us to compare and contrast. It allows us to have much more productive conversations with clients, where we can say we looked at your brand, we we what based on our analysis, we see that you’re scoring a 10 and a 9 on simplicity and organization, for example. Is that accurate to you like do you think that’s what you all are emphasizing the most? Does that? Does that resonate and at the same time, we can say, but your competitors are really focused on there. They have a strong, strong message around generating revenue and lowering costs for their customers. Right now, you’re not really talking about that. Is that accurate? Is that like, what you is that strategically, is that what you think you should be doing so really quickly, I’ve now framed a conversation that could have been very loose and kind of, you know, well, what do you think your strategy is about? What do you know? And instead, I can say, we see you being strong in these three points. We see your competitors being strong in these three points. What do you think about that? And I think that kind of clarity just makes the work so much more productive with clients, or just again, working on your own brand internally. So what do you think about that kind of perspective? Christian Klepp  40:08 Yeah, no, no, I definitely agree with that. It’s always and I’ve been that type of person anyway that you know you go into a especially with somebody that hasn’t quite become a client yet, right? One of the most important things is also, how should I put this? Certainly the trust building part of it needs to be there. The other part is definitely a demonstration of competence and ability, but it’s also that you’ve been proactive and done your homework, versus like, Okay, I’m I’m just here as an order taker, right? And let’s just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it right? A lot and especially, I think this has been a trend for a long time already, but a lot of the clients that I’ve worked with now in the past, they want to, they’re looking for a partner that’s not just thinking with them, it’s someone that’s thinking ahead of them. And this type of work, you know what we’re seeing here on screen, this is the type of work that I would consider thinking ahead of them, right? Clay Ostrom  41:18 No, I agree. I think you framed that really well. Of we’re trying to build trust, because if we’re going to make any kind of recommendations around a change or a shift, they have to believe that we know what we’re talking about, that we’re competent, that we’ve done the work. And I think I agree with you. I think like this, it’s kind of funny, like we all, I think, on some base level, are attracted to numbers and scores. It just gives us something to latch on to. But I think it also, like you said, it gives you a feeling that you’ve done your work, that you’ve done your homework, you’ve studied, you’ve you’ve done some analysis that they themselves may have never done on this level. And that’s a big value. Christian Klepp  42:08 Yes, and a big part of the reason just to, just to build on what you said, a big part of the reason why they haven’t done this type of work is because it’s not so much. The cost is certainly one part of it, but it’s the time, it’s a time factor and the resource and the effort that needs to be put into it. Because, you know, like, tell me if you’ve never heard this one before, but there are some, there are some companies that we’ve been working with that don’t actually have a clearly, like, you know, a clear document on who their their target personas are, yeah, or their or their ICPs, never mind the buyer’s journey map. They don’t, they don’t even have the personas mapped out, right? Clay Ostrom  42:52 100% Yeah, it’s, and it’s, I think you’re right. It’s, it’s a mix of time and it’s a mix of just experience where, if you are internal with a brand, you don’t do this kind of work all the time. You might do it at the beginning. Maybe you do a check in every once in a while, but you need someone who’s done this a lot with a lot of different brands so that they can give you guidance through this kind of framework. But so it’s, you know, so some of it is a mix of, you know, we don’t have the time always to dig in like this. But some of it is we don’t even know how to do it, even if we did have the time. So it’s hopefully giving, again, providing some different frameworks and different ways of looking at it. Christian Klepp  43:41 Absolutely, absolutely. So okay, so we’ve gone through. What is it now, the competitor comparison. What else does the platform provide us that the listeners and the audience should be paying attention to here? Clay Ostrom  43:55 So I’ll show you two more quick things. So one is this message building section. So this is… Christian Klepp  44:03 Are you trying to put me out of a job here Clay? Clay Ostrom  44:07 Well, I’ll say this. So far in my experience with this, it’s not going to put us out of a job, but it is going to hopefully make our job easier and better. It’s going to make us better at the work we do. And that’s really, I think that’s, I think that’s kind of, most people’s impression of AI at this point is that it’s not quite there to replace us, but it’s sure, certainly can enhance what we do. Christian Klepp  44:36 Yeah, you’ll excuse me, I couldn’t help but throw that one out. Clay Ostrom  44:38 Yeah, I know, trust me, I’m this. It’s like I’m building a product that, in a sense, is undercutting, you know, the work that I do. So it is kind of a weird thing, but this message building section, which is a new part of the platform. It will come in, and you can see on the right hand side. And there’s sort of a quick summary of all these different elements that we’ve already analyzed. And then it’s going to give you some generated copy ideas, including, if I zoom in a little bit here, we’ve got an eyebrow category. This is again for Slack. It’s giving us a headline idea, stay informed without endless emails. Sub headline call to action, three challenges that your customers are facing, and then three points about your solution that help address those for customers. So it’s certainly not writing all of your copy for you, but if you’re starting from scratch, or you’re working on something new, or even if you’re trying to refresh a brand. I think this can be helpful to give you some messaging that’s hopefully clear. That’s something that I think a lot of messaging misses, especially in B2B, it’s, it’s not always super clear, like what you even do. Christian Klepp  45:56 Don’t get me started. Clay Ostrom  45:59 So hopefully it’s clear. It’s, you know, again, it’s giving you some different ideas. And that you’ll see down here at the bottom, you can, you can iterate on this. So we’ve got several versions. You can actually come in and, you know, you can edit it yourself. So if you say, like, well, I like that, but not quite that, you know, I can, you know, get my human touch on it as well. But yeah, so it’s a place to iterate on message. Christian Klepp  46:25 You can kind of look at it like, let’s say, if you’re writing a blog article, and this will give you the outline, right? Yeah. And then most of the AI that I’ve worked with to generate outlines, they’re not quite there. But again, if you’re starting from zero and you want to go from zero to 100 Well, that’ll, that’ll at least get you to 40 or 50, right? But I’m curious to know, because we’re looking at this now, and I think this, I mean, for me, this is, this is fascinating, but, like, maybe, maybe this will be part of your next iteration. But will this, will this generate messaging that’s already SEO optimized. Clay Ostrom  47:02 You know, it’s not specifically geared towards that, but I would say that it ends up being maybe more optimized than a lot of other messaging because it puts such an emphasis on clarity, it naturally includes words and phrases that I think are commonly used in the space more so than you know, maybe just kind of typical off the shelf Big B2B messaging, Christian Klepp  47:27 Gotcha. I had a question on the target persona that you’ve got here on screen, right? So how does the platform generate the information that will then populate that field because, and when I’m just trying to think about like, you know, because I’ve been, I’ve been in the space for as long as you have, and the way that I’ve generated target personas in the past was not by making a wild guess about, like, you know, looking at the brand’s website. It’s like having conducting deep customer research and listening to hours and hours of recordings, and from there, generating a persona. And this has done it in seconds. So… Clay Ostrom  48:09 Yeah, it’s so the way the system works in a couple different layers. So it does an initial analysis, where it does positioning, messaging analysis and category analysis, then you can generate the persona on top of that. So it takes all the learnings that it got from the category, from the product, from your messaging, and then develops a persona around that. And it’s, of course, able to also pull in, you know, the AI is able to reference things that it knows about the space in general. But I have found, and this is true. I was just having a conversation with someone who works on a very niche brand for a very specific audience, and I was showing him what it had output. And I said, Tell me, like, Don’t hold back. Like, is this accurate? He said, Yeah, this is, like, shockingly accurate for you know, how we view our target customer. So I think it’s pretty good. It’s not again, not going to be perfect. You’re going to need to do some work, and you still got to do the research, but, but, yeah. Christian Klepp  49:13 Okay, fantastic, fantastic. How do, I guess there’s the option, I see it there, like, download the PDF. So anything that’s analyzed on the platform can then be exported in a PDF format, right? Like, like, into a report. Clay Ostrom  49:28 Yeah, right now you can export the messaging analysis, or, sorry, the the messaging ideation that you’ve done, and then in the brand brief you can also, you can download a PDF of the brand brief as well. So, those are the two main areas. I’m still working on some additional exports of data so that people can pull it into a spreadsheet and do some other stuff with it. Christian Klepp  49:49 Fantastic, fantastic. That’s awesome, Clay. I’ve got a couple more questions before I let you go. But this has been, this has been amazing, right? Like and I really hope that whoever’s in the one listening and, most importantly, watching this, I hope that you really do consider like, you know, taking this for a test drive, right? How many I might have asked you this before, because, you know, I am somebody that does use, you know, that does a lot of this type of research. But how much time would you say companies would save by using Smoke Ladder? Clay Ostrom  50:24 It’s a good question. I feel like I’m starting to get some feedback around that with from our users, but I mean, for me personally, I would typically spend an hour or two just to get kind of up to speed initially, with a brand and kind of look at some of their competitors. If I’m doing a deep dive, though, if I’m actually doing some of the deeper research work, it could be several hours per client. So I don’t know. On a given week, it might depend on how many clients you’re talking to. Could be anywhere from a few hours to 10 hours or more, depending on how much work you’re doing. But, yeah, I think it’s a decent amount. Christian Klepp  51:07 Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, this definitely does look like a time saver. Here comes my favorite question, which you’re gonna look at me like, Okay, I gotta, I gotta. Clay Ostrom  51:17 Now bring it on. Let’s go. Christian Klepp  51:22 Folks that are not familiar with Smoke Ladder are gonna look at this, um, and before they actually, um, take it upon themselves to, like, watch, hopefully, watch this video on our channel. Um, they’re gonna look at that and ask themselves, Well, what is it that Smoke Ladder does that? You know that other AI couldn’t do, right, like, so I guess what I’m trying to say is, like, Okay, why would they use? How does the platform differ from something like ChatGPT, Perplexity or Claude, right? To run a brand analysis? Clay Ostrom  52:00 Yeah, no, I think it’s a great question. I think it’s sort of the it’s going to be the eternal AI question for every product that has an AI component. And I would say to me, it’s three things. So one is the data, which we talked about, and I didn’t show you this earlier, but there is a search capability in here to go through our full archive of all the brands we’ve analyzed, and again, we’ve analyzed over 6000 brands. So the data piece is really important here, because it means we’re not just giving you insights and analysis based on the brand that you’re looking at now, but we can compare and contrast against all the other brands that we’ve looked at in the space, and that’s something that you’re not going to get by just using some off the shelf standard LLM  (Large Language Model) and doing some, you know, some quick prompts with that. The next one, I think, to me that’s important is it’s the point of view of the product and the brand. Like I said, this is built off of 10 plus years of doing positioning and messaging work in the space. So you’re getting to tap into that expertise and that approach of how we do things and building frameworks that make this work easier and more productive that you wouldn’t get, or you wouldn’t know, just on your own. And then the last one, the last point, which is sort of the kind of like the generic software answer, is you get a visual interface for this stuff. It’s the difference between using QuickBooks versus a spreadsheet. You can do a lot of the same stuff that you do in QuickBooks and a spreadsheet, but wouldn’t you rather have a nice interface and some easy buttons to click that make your job way, way easier and do a lot of the work for you and also be able to present it in a way that’s digestible and something you could share with clients? So the visual component in the UI is sort of that last piece. Christian Klepp  54:01 Absolutely. I mean, it’s almost like UX and UI one on one. That’s, that’s pretty much like a big part of, I think what it is you’re trying to build here, right? Clay Ostrom  54:13 Yeah, exactly. It’s just it’s making all of those things that you might do in an LLM just way, way easier. You know, you basically come in, put in your URL and click a button, and you’re getting access to all the data and all the insights and all this stuff so. Christian Klepp  54:29 Absolutely, absolutely okay. And as we wrap this up, this has been a fantastic conversation, by the way, how can the audience start using Smoke Ladder, and how can they get in touch with you if they have questions, and hopefully good questions. Clay Ostrom  54:47 Yeah, so you can, if you go to https://smokeladder.com/ you can, you can try it out. Like I said, you can basically go to the homepage, put in a URL and get started. You don’t even have to create an account to do the initial analysis. But you can create FREE account. You can dig in and see, you know, play around with all the features, and if you use it more, you know, we give you a little bit of a trial period. And if you use it beyond that, then you can pay and continue to use it, but, but you can get a really good flavor of it for free. Christian Klepp  55:16 Fantastic, fantastic. Oh, last question, because, you know, it’s looking me right in the face now, industry categories. How many? How many categories can be analyzed on the platform? Clay Ostrom  55:26 Yeah, yeah. So right now, we have 23 categories in the system currently, which sounds like a lot, but when you start to dig into especially B2B, it’s we will be evolving that and continuing to add more, but currently, there’s 23 different categories of businesses in there. Christian Klepp  55:46 All right, fantastic, fantastic. Clay, man. This has been so awesome. Thank you so much for your time and for your patience and walking us through this, this incredible platform that you’ve built and continue to build. And you know, I’m excited to continue using this as it evolves. Clay Ostrom  56:06 Thank you. Yeah, no. Thanks so much. And you know, if anybody, you know, anybody who tries it out, tests it out, please feel free to reach out. We have, you know, contact info on there. You can also hit me up on LinkedIn. I spend a lot of time there, but I would love feedback, love getting notes, love hearing what’s working, what’s not, all those things. So yeah, anytime I’m always open. Christian Klepp  56:30 All right, fantastic. Once again, Clay, thanks for your time. Take care, stay safe and talk to you soon. Clay Ostrom  56:36 Thanks so much. Talk to you soon. Christian Klepp  56:37 All right. Bye for now.

Get the full playbook (60 minute video masterclass) 100% free right here: https://www.pipedrive.com/en/30mpc-masterclass --- Deal velocity is a huge driver of win rates, which is why Armand and I partnered with the easy and effective CRM, Pipedrive, to film a 60 minute video masterclass that covers all of the different ways that you can drive velocity in each individual stage of your sales process. Literally, from opening call all the way to contract review, we documented our favorite tactics in this Pipedrive and 30MPC masterclass, which you can get for free right here: https://www.pipedrive.com/en/30mpc-masterclass --- Most reps think progress = meetings. Discovery, demo, proposal…❌ In this video, we break down why traditional sales stages like "Discovery → Demo → Power" are actually slowing your deals down — and what top AEs do instead to accelerate pipeline velocity. Learn the stage-based mindset, how to combine exit criteria, and stop wasting time with meetings that don't move the deal forward. ✅ You'll walk away knowing: * The 5 critical sales stages — and what *actually* matters in each * Why meeting ≠ progress (and what to track instead) * How to combine sales stages to close faster

https://www.b2bRevenue.com - Get Your Free E-Book on How Companies make Decisions.   Get a 30 day Free Trial of Pipedrive with "BRUTALTRUTH" coupon at https://www.Pipedrive.com   Video Emails by Covideo = http://www.Covideo.com     A.I. Call Analysis by Gong.io = https://www.gong.io/bt   Audible 30 day Free Trial: http://www.audibletrial.com/BrutalTruth     Check out my YouTube channel and watch my Free Sales/Social Selling Course. https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=MaverickMethod     Listen to The Sales Questions PodCast: https://itun.es/i67d3Ry     Listen to The B2B Revenue Leadership Show: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/b2b-revenue-leadership-show/id1174976428?mt=2     Join The Gaggle and Spread The Brutal Truth: http://gaggleamp.com/i/xfpnkxv   LeadFuze Coupon = SALES20 - to get 20% more leads https://www.leadfuze.com/#_l_1i       Use Find that Lead to get anyone's email: https://findthatlead.com/pricing#_r_brian81     Twitter: @briangburns LinkedIn: Brian G. Burns Facebook: Brian Burns YouTube: Brian Burns    

Send us a textDownload our free book chapter on niching downIn this week's episode, I spoke to Wes Towers, a website design and SEO expert with 20 years experience, to discuss how freelancers and service providers can adapt their digital presence for the AI era. From "search everywhere optimization" to email marketing strategies, Wes shared with me practical insights on making your website work harder as a lead generation tool.About Wes TowersWes accidentally fell into the web design industry in 2000 when his first employer—a Sydney marketing company that had never built a website—handed him their first web design project. Two decades later, he now runs Uplift, helping businesses optimize their digital presence for maximum visibility and lead generation.Key Topics Discussed

No.1 vulnerability expert BRENÉ BROWN exposes how shame, fear, and perfectionism secretly control your life - and reveals proven ways to unlock courage, confidence, trust, connection, and joy. Brené Brown is a world-renowned research professor who has spent over two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy. She is also the author of 6 #1 New York Times bestsellers, including her recently published book, ‘Strong Ground', and hosts two award-winning podcasts on leadership and human connection. She explains:  ◼️The marble jar theory that changed how Fortune 100 companies build trust ◼️The 4 skill sets of courage you can train and measure ◼️Why fitting in is the greatest threat to true belonging ◼️How to identify your “armor” when you're afraid and drop it ◼️The gratitude practice that stops catastrophising in real-time (00:00) Intro (02:34) What Made Brené Who She Is? (07:23) Parents Affecting Your View of Love (10:48) 87 Human Emotions (11:50) Why Did Brené Struggle With Self-Love and Belonging? (15:36) How Has the World Changed in the Last Two Decades? (16:23) Is Power Driven by Fear? (19:51) Four Types of Power: How to Be Successful as a Leader (22:54) Systems Theory (26:48) The Role of AI and Social Media in Shaping Society (34:39) Wisdom From Psychology and Life Experience (41:26) What Type of Connection Should People Be Looking For? (44:34) Belonging vs. Standing Alone (47:43) Making a Divisive Podcast (54:07) Pros and Cons of Curiosity (54:50) Responsibility of a Platform to Assess Guest Credibility (1:03:34) Ads (1:04:32) Importance of Vulnerability (1:09:30) Managing Fear of Vulnerability (1:18:36) Overcoming Negative Traits (1:21:06) Improving Self-Esteem (1:25:43) Four Steps to Courage (1:27:44) Building Trust With the Marble Jar Theory (1:32:47) Leaders' Misconceptions of Trust (1:35:05) Cheating (1:36:03) Ads (1:38:11) Relationship Advice (1:41:42) Losing Your Mother to Dementia (1:45:27) How Did You Deal With Grief? (1:48:40) What Are You Optimizing for Right Now? Follow Brené: Website - https://bit.ly/47rISeb  LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/3Jq4T5i  Instagram - https://bit.ly/49rCLt0  You can purchase Brené's book ‘Strong Ground', here: http://bit.ly/47gIWyJ  You can listen to Dare to Lead podcast here: http://bit.ly/3WwlN56  The Diary Of A CEO: ◼️Join DOAC circle here - https://doaccircle.com/  ◼️Buy The Diary Of A CEO book here - https://smarturl.it/DOACbook  ◼️The 1% Diary is back - limited time only: https://bit.ly/3YFbJbt  ◼️The Diary Of A CEO Conversation Cards (Second Edition): https://g2ul0.app.link/f31dsUttKKb  ◼️Get email updates - https://bit.ly/diary-of-a-ceo-yt  ◼️Follow Steven - https://g2ul0.app.link/gnGqL4IsKKb  Sponsors: Shopify - https://shopify.com/bartlett   Pipedrive - http://pipedrive.com/CEO      Vanta - https://vanta.com/steven

Today's show:Australia has accused Microsoft of employing a dark pattern… Hear why Jason says these kinds of sneaky tactics aren't usually worth it.It's a brand-new Monday TWiST and it's PACKED with news. In addition to Australia's allegations against MSFT, we're looking at Chinese drone fails and wondering how live experiences will change in the age of AI.PLUS has Tesla finally “solved” FSD after years of promises? Does it matter that so much of Mercor's revenue goes back out to contractors? Do Chinese LLMs have a major advantage when it comes to the stock market over Western counterparts? Why Jason avoids overseas deals when he doesn't speak the language or know the culture. And much more!Timestamps:(00:03:44) Fall is here! And Jason is already looking ahead to “BFCM” and the holiday season.(00:07:13) We're bringing back the TWiSTies and a Prediction 2026 show(00:07:33) People are using AI to create fake receipts for fraudulent invoices!(10:00) Pipedrive - Bring clarity and control to your sales process with Pipedrive, the #1 CRM for small and medium sized businesses. Supercharge your sales today. Start with a 30-day free trial at pipedrive.com/twist.(00:14:23) It's earnings week for Meta AND Alphabet AND Microsoft AND AMAZON!(00:19:55) What happened with the disastrous Chinese drone and fireworks show?(20:00) Monarch - Thanks to our partner, Monarch! Try the app and get 50% off your first year by visiting monarchmoney.com/twist.(00:27:37) Why Jason thinks live experiences are going to get much bigger and more impressive in the age of AI(00:29:34) Why Tesla is training FSD on synthetic data now… Has FSD finally been “solved”?(30:00) AWS Activate - AWS Activate helps startups bring their ideas to life. Apply to AWS Activate today to learn more. Visit https://www.aws.amazon.com/startups/credits(00:45:10) What's going on with these new Sequoia funds? Jason unpacks the strategy…(00:50:50) Jason doesn't like to invest overseas unless he speaks the language and knows the culture(00:51:11) Jason's thoughts on the controversy surrounding Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire's comments(00:58:34) Mercor pays out 60-70% of its toppling revenue to contractors… does this MATTER?(01:06:14) Do Chinese LLMs have a major advantage when it comes to investing? (Humans are now betting on all this on PolyMarket)(01:09:45) Australia alleges that Microsoft is employing a dark pattern… why Jason says that's a problem.Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelmFollow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanisThank you to our partners:AWS Activate - AWS Activate helps startups bring their ideas to life. Apply to AWS Activate today to learn more. Visit https://www.aws.amazon.com/startups/creditsMonarch Money - Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at www.monarchmoney.com/TWISTPipedrive - Bring clarity and control to your sales process with Pipedrive, the #1 CRM for small and medium sized businesses. Supercharge your sales today. Start with a 30-day free trial at pipedrive.com/twist.Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarlandCheck out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanisFollow TWiST:Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartupsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartupsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartupsSubstack: https://twistartups.substack.comSubscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916

In this episode, we dive into the often-overwhelming world of building a tech stack for your coaching business! We know the thought of sorting through all the technology options can make your eyes glaze over, but fear not! We break it down into manageable pieces, discussing everything from accounting software to payment processors, calendaring systems, and even email marketing tools. Adding tech to your process should save you time and money, not cause you headaches and cost you cash. Our goal is to help you streamline your processes so you can focus on what you do best – coaching! Are you ready to take your coaching business to the next level? Listen in as we share our personal experiences with different tools and provide recommendations that can help you build a solid tech foundation for a thriving coaching practice.

¿QUIERES AUMENTAR TUS VENTAS Y CERRAR NEGOCIOS COMO UNA MÁQUINA?

On this episode of The YM Show, I sit down with my good buddy Michael Kleinfeld, a top performer in B2B sales. We get super practical about how he actually wins contracts—from the first cold call, to follow-ups, to proposals—and how you can apply the same frameworks in any industry.If you're in sales (or you're a founder doing sales yourself), this episode is a cheat-sheet: the ins & outs, do's & don'ts, misconceptions, and yes—the occasional “scheme” to watch for—so you can close more cleanly and build long-term relationships.

Dans cet épisode du podcast Parlons Affaires, Audrey et Hubert discutent des opportunités qu'offre la technologie – notamment l'intelligence artificielle (IA) – pour optimiser et moderniser une entreprise, particulièrement lors d'un rachat ou d'une transition.

https://constraintcalculator.scoreapp.com/In this episode, Jordan Ross interviews Megan Balyk, VP at Jive PR and Digital, to share how her team transformed operations by moving from manual, disconnected systems into a Go High Level + Notion + AI-powered workflow.Jive PR was stuck juggling PipeDrive, Beehive, and DocuSign while manually tracking leads, proposals, and onboarding. After implementing automation and consolidating tools, they not only saved tens of thousands of dollars annually but also avoided hiring a $60K/year business development assistant.Instead, they reinvested savings into marketing, content creation, and growth initiatives—compounding results without burning out their team.If you're an agency owner or operator frustrated by manual work and tool overload, this conversation breaks down how to streamline your workflows, minimize human error, and free up resources to scale.Chapters – The pain of manual tasks & why automation matters – Meet Megan Balyk & Jive PR – Life before automation: PipeDrive & scattered tools – Transition to Go High Level + Notion – Favorite automations that changed the game – From messy notes to automated follow-ups – Consolidating tools & cutting costs – Adding proactive outreach & social listening – Proposal process before vs. after automation – Transition challenges & the simplicity factor – Asking “dumb” questions to learn faster – Building with Alexandra: best practices + customization – Lasting impact: saving time, cutting errors, scaling smarter – Avoiding a $60K hire through automation – Redirecting savings into content & marketing growth – Where to find Jive PR & their services – Closing thoughts: get ahead of the AI + automation waveTo learn more go to 8figureagency.co

In dieser Folge spreche ich Klartext: Outbound ist nicht tot, aber im Koma. 100 E-Mails, 3 Antworten? 50 Calls, 4 Gespräche mit „kein Interesse“? Willkommen im Jahr 2025.

Are your daily tasks keeping you from growing your business? In this episode, business coach and systems strategist Holly Jean Jackson joins us to share why documenting key processes, like sales, client onboarding, and team workflows, is the secret to sustainable growth. Tune in to learn how the right systems (and tools like ClickUp, Pipedrive, and ActiveCampaign) can help you delegate with confidence, create “delight moments” for your clients, and free up your time to focus on what matters most.

In this special episode, Gresham Harkless is in a season of deep self-awareness and transition, navigating the balance between learning a new industry and staying true to who he is.    Gresham recalls a pivotal moment from his time with the Evolutionary Business Council, where he was reminded that he wasn't meant to conform but to lead with distinction.   As he builds his presence in the franchise brokerage world, he's realizing that some of the tools and systems he initially adopted, like an expensive all-in-one CRM, aren't helping him thrive.   Gresham considers transitioning everything back to Pipedrive, a system he's familiar with and can customize to better support his goals.    He aims to be part of the high-performing 20% by building his process, trusting his instincts, and staying adaptable.   Blue Star Franchise: http://bluestarfranchise.com Browse the Franchise Inventory: https://bluestarfranchise.com/franchise Is franchising right for you? Check this out to see: http://bluestarfranchise.com/assessment Franchise CEO (A CBNation Site - coming soon) - http://franchiseceo.co Check out our CEO Hack Buzz Newsletter–our premium newsletter with hacks and nuggets to level up your organization. Sign up HERE.  I AM CEO Handbook Volume 3 is HERE and it's FREE. Get your copy here: http://cbnation.co/iamceo3. Get the 100+ things that you can learn from 1600 business podcasts we recorded. Hear Gresh's story, learn the 16 business pillars from the podcast, find out about CBNation Architects and why you might be one and so much more. Did we mention it was FREE? Download it today!

What kind of leadership lets you disappear for six months without things falling apart? In this episode of ARRtist on AIR, Agur Jögi, CTO of Pipedrive, shares his approach to building empowered engineering teams, navigating AI transformation in software engineering organizations, and scaling Pipedrive's CRM business in a highly competitive market and super-dynamic era of software engineering. We talk about how to guardrail AI agents, how Pipedrive develops and retains top engineering talent, how they structure their teams for experimentation and performance, and what it takes to build software that feels personal to 100,000+ customers.

Send us a textThe enterprise software and AI landscape continues to evolve with a wave of targeted innovations and strategic alliances. Rimini Street and T-Systems North America have joined forces to offer cost-effective enterprise software support and hosting, while ServiceNow is introducing AI agents tailored for the telecom sector to enhance productivity across service lifecycles. AI continues to take center stage—Creatio's latest 8.2.2 release brings key platform enhancements, Pipedrive now simplifies sales reporting with AI-generated insights, and Resulticks debuts Genie, an AI agent designed to slash marketing workloads by 40%. Meanwhile, GoTo is catering to automotive dealerships with a new communication platform, Persado is transforming financial services marketing through dynamic AI-driven emails, and Simpplr is boosting enterprise integration flexibility with custom app extensibility. From smarter ERP deployments like iFabric Corp's adoption of BlueCherry®, to customer service innovation with Talkdesk's After Hours initiative, the momentum toward industry-specific, AI-augmented, and integration-ready solutions shows no signs of slowing down.In today's episode, we invited a panel of industry analysts for a live discussion on LinkedIn to analyze current enterprise software stories. We covered many grounds including the direction and roadmaps of each enterprise software vendors. Finally, we analyzed future trends and how they might shape the enterprise software industry.Background Soundtrack: Away From You – Mauro SommFor more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs. rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform. 

Dmitry Dragilev is a SaaS founder and content marketer who built and sold four businesses to Google, Semrush, SEOJet, and Mangools. He founded TopicRanker, SmallBizTools, JustReachOut, and helped scale Polar Polls to 40M+ monthly pageviews before its acquisition by Google. Dmitry has also helped brands like DowJones and Pipedrive rank #1 on Google. Today, he is going to share the strategies and lessons behind building and scaling successful businesses. CONNECT WITH HIM https://topicranker.com/ Subscribe to this channel now!  https://www.youtube.com/user/lunidelouis/?sub_confirmation=1    ---------------------------------------------------- Join our exclusive Facebook group @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/339709559955223  --------------------------------------------------- Looking for accountability to do your morning routine -- join us tomorrow morning, it's FREE:   https://bestmorningroutineever.com/  ----------------------------------------­­­­­­­-------------

Why you should listenChris Brisson reveals how SMS achieves 98% deliverability rates compared to declining email open rates, giving tech consultants an unfair advantage in client communication.Learn the "Textize Your Business" framework that turns every touchpoint in your client journey into a conversation starter, from lead generation to getting reviews and referrals.Discover real case studies including how one speaker converted 150 event attendees into $25,000+ of lead value using simple QR codes and SMS automation.You're probably still over-relying on email and LinkedIn to reach prospects and clients - and missing out on the channel with the highest engagement rates. As a tech consultant, this could be costing you deals and dragging out your sales cycles. In this episode, I talk with Chris Brisson, who's been in SMS marketing since 2009 and built SalesMessage to help businesses "textize" their operations. We dive deep into how SMS integrates with platforms like HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive, plus the AI-powered agents that can handle responses 24/7. Chris shares the exact frameworks for turning cold leads into warm conversations, reducing no-shows, and scaling client communication without adding overhead.About Chris BrissonChris Brisson is the founder and CEO of Salesmsg (read as “sales message”), a leading AI-powered SMS platform designed to help businesses engage, qualify, and convert leads at scale through two-way text messaging. A serial entrepreneur and seasoned SaaS operator, Chris has bootstrapped Salesmsg into an 8-figure ARR business while maintaining strong profitability and a high-performing team culture.Previously, Chris founded Call Loop, one of the earliest voice and text broadcasting platforms, and has spent over 15 years building direct response marketing systems and SaaS products. Today, he's at the forefront of AI-driven customer engagement, leading the charge to “Textize Your Business”—a methodology that empowers companies to turn messaging into their most effective conversion channel.Chris is also an EOS-driven founder, speaker, and growth strategist who's passionate about helping fellow entrepreneurs unlock scalable systems, dominate niche markets, and design companies that are both profitable and purposeful.Resources and LinksSalesmessage.comChris' LinkedIn profileClaude.aiPrevious episode: 626 - Are You Building a Business or Just Buying Yourself a Job?Check out more episodes of the Paul Higgins PodcastSubscribe to our YouTube channel: @PaulHigginsMentoringFree Training for AI & Tech Consultants Ready to Stop Trading Time for MoneyJoin our newsletterSuggested resource

Gresham Harkless reflects on a pivotal transition toward simplifying and refocusing his strategy.    He acknowledges the need to scale back temporarily on Google Ads, recognizing that without a clearly defined and responsive client avatar, those efforts serve as inefficient amplifiers.   Gresham shifts his attention toward organic and relationship-driven methods, particularly leveraging the podcast and blog as tools for discovery, outreach, and opportunity generation.    Gresham emphasizes the importance of identifying a real, urgent pain point, such as layoffs or workforce reductions, that can prompt quicker decisions from potential clients seeking career reinvention through franchising.    He plans to reengage with past podcast guests and consolidate client information using tools like Pipedrive, aiming to create a more organized and effective system for tracking and nurturing relationships.    Moreover, his focus is on letting go of tactics that aren't producing meaningful results and doubling down on the strategies that align with his long-term vision, creating a more intentional and efficient approach moving forward.   Blue Star Franchise: http://bluestarfranchise.com Browse the Franchise Inventory: https://bluestarfranchise.com/franchise Is franchising right for you? Check this out to see: http://bluestarfranchise.com/assessment Franchise CEO (A CBNation Site - coming soon) - http://franchiseceo.co Check out our CEO Hack Buzz Newsletter–our premium newsletter with hacks and nuggets to level up your organization. Sign up HERE.  I AM CEO Handbook Volume 3 is HERE and it's FREE. Get your copy here: http://cbnation.co/iamceo3. Get the 100+ things that you can learn from 1600 business podcasts we recorded. Hear Gresh's story, learn the 16 business pillars from the podcast, find out about CBNation Architects and why you might be one and so much more. Did we mention it was FREE? Download it today!

In this episode, Will and Christy touch base about wrangling code updates, keeping up with Squarespace's ongoing changes, and the debate between live and pre-recorded marketing. Then they bring in Kelsey Gilbert Kryling, founder of Week of the Website, to talk honestly about what it's like running an agency and the day-to-day realities of digital business. Kelsey shares what it takes to balance work and family life, the practical realities of maternity leave, and her biggest lessons on team structure and workflow. If you're weighing freelance vs. agency life or planning to step back for family or health, Kelsey's open-book approach is both reassuring and eye-opening. They also take a few minutes to celebrate simple wins, like the joy of a good pastry!Kelsey's top tech stack:Slack [https://slack.com/]Pipedrive [https://www.pipedrive.com/]EOS/90.io [https://www.90.io/] (Entrepreneurial Operating System organizing tool)Find Kelsey at https://www.weekofthewebsite.com/ or https://www.bykelseygk.com/ Sponsor: SquareKickerWhat if you could have unlimited creativity on Squarespace? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The SquareKicker Pro Extension⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ gives you powerful design control, with an intuitive, visual UI right inside your Squarespace editor.Created by designers, for designers, over 100 no-code tools empower you to customize Squarespace far beyond its native capabilities. Visit squarekicker.com for a free trial—no credit card required. Use SOMEWHAT15 to get 15% off all SquareKicker products today.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Learn More

If you want to create content that truly resonates, start by listening. Your audience is already telling you what they care about—you just need to ask the right questions and use their answers to fuel smarter, more personalized marketing. That's a quote from Rachael Bassey and a sneak peek at today's episode.Hi there, I'm Kerry Curran—B2B revenue-growth executive advisor, industry analyst, and host of Revenue Boost, a marketing podcast. Every episode, I sit down with top experts to bring you actionable strategies that drive real results. If you're serious about growth, hit subscribe and stay ahead of the competition.In From Insight to Impact: Smarter Research for Personalization That Resonates, I sit down with Rachael Bassey. She's the research partner to SaaS companies and the founder of ContentCollab.co. We explore how small marketing teams can personalize content at scale through smarter, more targeted audience research. We dig into practical ways to uncover buyer pain points, engage prospects through collaboration, and create content that stands out—especially in a sea of generic AI overviews.If you're looking for a way to connect your content strategy to pipeline impact, you don't want to miss this conversation. Be sure to stay tuned to the end, where Rachael shares how to turn contributors into loyal brand advocates and why that's the smartest way to grow both your content and your customer base. Be sure to subscribe and leave a review so you don't miss future episodes packed with actionable advice. Let's go!Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:01.72)So welcome Rachael, please introduce yourself and share your background and expertise.Rachael Bassey (00:07.279)Hey everyone, I'm Rachael Bassey. People call me Ray—Ray of Sunshine, more like it. I work as a research partner for SaaS companies. My specialization or expertise is helping companies create original research reports. I'll dive into what these reports are and my process later, but in a nutshell, that's it.Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:41.966)Excellent. Well, thank you. I'm very excited to have you join us today because content is so critically important—especially original content and research specific to the audience. So talk to us a bit about what you're seeing and hearing as you're talking to your prospects or clients. What are the needs in the marketplace these days when it comes to getting smarter, better content?Rachael Bassey (01:10.529)Okay, before I get into that—thank you so much, Kerry, for having me. Really, thank you. So two things: One—AI. You have small companies that are like, “Why bother hiring a writer when I can just go to ChatGPT and say, ‘Help me with my content plan, content calendar, and 50 articles for my blog' and get it done?” But then, a lot of people can easily spot articles written by ChatGPT, and people are tired of the robotic voice—even though I use a lot of it. People want to hear things that actually sound human.People are also hungry for data—things they can benchmark their performance against.Then on the other hand, budgets are being cut everywhere—left, right, and center. So CEOs and founders are asking, “Why should I invest more in marketing? How do we tie marketing to revenue?”There's a debate around, “Is the whole marketing funnel even relevant anymore?”You just have different arguments around whether it's important to invest in marketing or if we should even bother right now. That's pretty much what I'm seeing in the space.Kerry Curran, RBMA (03:01.484)Yeah, definitely. And it's so true—I can't have a conversation about marketing without AI being front and center. There's a lot of value there, but to your point, if you're putting all your creativity into the AI model, you're not going to get the quality you need.Adding to that, AI also impacts search results. If you're just producing generic content, your rankings will suffer. You have to get smarter about content structure so your expertise can rank better.So much opportunity here. Talk to me about how you're solving this—how are you helping your clients?Rachael Bassey (04:03.102)Great. Okay, so I'll just do a bit of a rundown.I worked with a company called Databox back in 2019. I'm no longer with them, but we started what I like to call collaborative marketing before it was even a thing. Back then, people didn't really care about talking to real people or experts and collaborating with them to create content.Now you go on LinkedIn and see a lot of people talking about original research, but before it became the trend, we were doing it. We were a small marketing team. I was employee 25 in the company, and our team had just three people: John, Bella, and me.When you have a small marketing team, you wear many hats. You might not even be an expert in the industry, yet you're expected to write 50 articles in two months. So we said, “Let's collaborate with our customers and prospects.”At the time, agencies made up the majority of Databox's clients. I would spend so much time on directories like Agency Spotter, HubSpot, and Pipedrive to find and connect with them.It made so much sense to involve these people in our content production process. We'd create simple surveys, ask them specific questions, collect their answers or insights, and publish blog articles based on their input.Eventually, we stepped it up to create benchmark reports. For example, if you're a Facebook advertiser, and your click-through rate is 2.4%, what's the industry average? We could provide that kind of insight—so companies could compare and see where they stood.That's how we scaled from publishing two articles a week to an article every day.I moved on from Databox and later worked at a company called Terkel—now known as Featured. If you know HARO, Featured is kind of a competitor.I thought, “Okay, I did this for Databox, and I know it works—how can I do this for multiple companies at once?” So at Featured, I worked with smaller teams to help them understand it's okay not to have a big marketing budget.You can still do really good work if you focus on involving customers and prospects in your content creation process. Right now, if I were to write about civil engineering, it would be based only on what I find online. But if I talk to civil engineers who spend 8 hours a day on site, they'll give me insights no AI model can produce.Your experience, Kerry, is unique to you. ChatGPT can't replicate it.Then I started my own thing after Featured—but that's the origin.Kerry Curran, RBMA (09:07.552)Excellent. So talk to me about the process though. You're identifying the client's target audience and interviewing them. You said you research to find the right experts—how do you even start with what to ask them?Rachael Bassey (09:26.34)Great. So it depends on the level I'm working with. For example, one current client—during our first meeting, I asked about their ideal clients, and the founder listed eight different groups. I said, “How do I even reach out to that many groups? You can't possibly cater to eight.”Some companies aren't even clear on their ICP, so I always say, “First, we need to get that right.”Because once you know your ICP, everything else is much easier.So, first I ask:Who are your ideal clients?Where are they based?What do they talk about?What do they write about?For this particular client, I've been spending 80% of my work time in Facebook groups. I don't even know why I'm paying for LinkedIn Premium right now! I'm just listening to bloggers, creators, and entrepreneurs to understand what they're really talking about and interested in.Especially since this client is a Shopify theme developer, I'm trying to determine if the market actually wants what they're building—or if it's just a nice idea that nobody asked for.Once I do enough listening, I reach out to these audiences with a basic survey I've created. That survey is designed to surface their pain points.If a majority of respondents don't list monetizing their content as a pain point, for example, then that's a sign we shouldn't be investing in a solution for it.And sometimes people don't even know they have a problem until you talk to them.So first, I help my clients clarify their ICP—if they haven't already. Many clients I've worked with thought they had their ICP nailed, but after talking to customers, they ended up pivoting or refining it.Rachael Bassey (12:13.696)Next, I work with them to define what I call the "Ideal Contributor Profile" too—not just the ideal customer.For example, Kerry, if you were my ideal customer, I'd ask:Where do you live? What's your title? What's your industry? How many employees are at your company? Sometimes, trying to reach a VP at a 5,000-person company is a waste of time. You'll need approval from too many layers, and it's like going to court.So once we define who our ideal contributors are, I use LinkedIn filters—sometimes even certifications (like HubSpot Certified, for instance)—to find highly qualified individuals.It's not just about gathering insights. We want insights from people who can also become customers down the line. That way, the work serves both marketing and sales goals.For example, one client was in influencer marketing. At first, they wanted to gather input from agencies. But I said, “Let's focus on in-house influencer marketing professionals at eCommerce brands—because those are your buyers.”So we shifted our survey strategy. Now, instead of collecting insights just for backlinks or SEO, we're engaging the people who might actually buy the product.That way, when the marketing manager follows up to thank them for contributing, it's not just relationship-building—it's lead generation.We've even had contributors say, “I've been thinking about buying a tool like this—can I get a free trial?” Of course! That's exactly the goal.Kerry Curran, RBMA (17:10.028)No—and you're so right. And you're so smart, because I think we spend—personally, I spend—so much time researching. But to actually start interviewing your target audience, especially those who aren't already customers, is just brilliant.It's not necessarily easy, but it's manageable. Especially if someone like you is guiding the process.Tell us—how can people get in touch with you?Rachael Bassey (27:43.904)Rachael Bassey—not the American spelling! It's R-A-C-H-A-E-L. That's important. And Bassey is B-A-S-S-E-Y.I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, so that's the best place to find me.I'm currently working on my website: contentcollab.co. Or feel free to email me: rachael@contentcollab.co. That's content and collab—C-O-L-L-A-B—dot co.Kerry Curran, RBMA (28:24.682)Excellent. Thank you, Rachael. I'll put all your contact information in the show notes. And thank you for reaching out on LinkedIn and asking to be on the show—this topic was so actionable.I already know what my takeaways are, and I'm sure our listeners will feel the same way. Thank you again.Rachael Bassey (28:45.22)Thank you so much, Kerry, for having me. This was lovely.Huge thanks to Rachael Bassey for joining us today. Her insights on using original research to create personalized, relevant, and scalable content are exactly what modern marketers need right now.If this episode sparked ideas for how your team can better connect with your audience, share it with a colleague—and don't forget to subscribe and leave a review.For more strategies to connect marketing with revenue, head over to revenuebasedmarketing.com.And please follow me, Kerry Curran, on LinkedIn. We'll see you soon. Flat or slowing revenue? Let's fix that—fast.Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast delivers the proven plays, sharp insights, and “steal-this-today” tactics that high-growth teams swear by.Follow / Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTubeTap ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ if the insights move your metrics—every rating fuels more game-changing episodes

Dots Oyebolu's latest guest is Gaetano Nino DiNardi, Growth Advisor and former marketing leader at Pipedrive, Sales Hacker (now Outreach) and Nextiva.Gaetano shares his unconventional journey from music producer to sought-after marketing strategist. He dives into his early SEO experiments, the power of inbound marketing and how focus — not scale — is the secret to long-term success. With a no-fluff, hustle-forward philosophy, Gaetano outlines how most SaaS companies lack true differentiation and why success often comes from execution rather than positioning. Key Takeaways:(01:31) Gaetano shares how his blogging background and passion for SEO launched his unexpected career in marketing.(05:29) Companies usually fall into two categories: those that know what to do but need help executing, and those that need help figuring out the strategy.(07:31) Focused, phased marketing efforts yield better results than attempting to tackle everything at once.(10:33) With so many SaaS brands blending, standing out often comes down to creating stronger content, bolder creative and sharper execution.(13:59) Consistency is critical in marketing success; historical examples are good for showing how competitors have pulled ahead.(18:53) Traditional demand capture tactics, such as biased comparison tables, backfire; instead, highlight genuine value.(24:30) Conversion paths often span multiple touchpoints, and marketers must evaluate the full journey, not just isolated campaigns.(30:00) Community-driven spaces like Docebo's customer hub play a key role in customer retention and advocacy.(38:42) Using customer data to target competitors' audiences through tools like LinkedIn and data platforms is a powerful growth tactic.Resources Mentioned:Gaetano Nino DiNardihttps://www.linkedin.com/in/officialg/Pipedrive | LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/pipedrive/Outreach | LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/outreach-saas/Nextiva | LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/nextiva/SEMRushhttps://www.semrush.com/OfficialGaetano.com | Websitehttps://officialgaetano.comDocebo Communityhttps://community.docebo.com/Insightful Links:https://www.bain.com/insights/reimagining-marketing-during-recessionary-times/ https://www.divisional.co/blog/tips-to-optimize-growth-marketing-strategy https://www.dashly.io/blog/demand-generation-vs-growth-marketing/ https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/reimagining-marketing-in-the-next-normal Thanks for listening to the “Marketing Leadership” podcast, brought to you by Listen Network. If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review to help get the word out about the show. And be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation. We appreciate the enthusiasm and support from our community. Currently, we are not accepting new guest interview requests as we focus on our existing lineup. We will announce when we reopen for new submissions. In the meantime, feel free to explore our past episodes and stay tuned for updates on future opportunities.#PodcastMarketing #PerformanceMarketing #BrandMarketing #MarketingStrategy #MarketingIntelligence #GTM #B2BMarketing #D2CMarketing #PodcastAds

In this episode, Zach sits down with Shaun Shirazian, CEO of Lodgify, for an unfiltered conversation about what's next in hospitality tech—and what's not changing. Shaun shares how a meaningful moment on a San Diego balcony more than a decade ago sparked his passion for short-term rentals, and how that guest connection still drives his work building tools for small operators around the globe. We unpack Lodgify's long-standing mission to “arm the underdogs” by empowering independent hosts and managers with the same technology advantages as the big players. Shaun draws a clear line between his upbringing as the son of immigrants, his experience at companies like Intuit and PipeDrive, and the deep conviction that great tech should level the playing field for the little guys. But this episode isn't just philosophical—it's tactical. Shaun offers a refreshingly honest take on: Why switching PMSs still feels painful, and what needs to change. How Lodgify is navigating its role as both OTA partner and direct booking champion. What's holding back the direct booking experience (hint: it's not just UX). How the best future software will be invisible—delivering outcomes, not dashboards. We also talk AI, and Shaun shares why Lodgify is entering what he calls its “13-year-old growth spurt,” a new chapter he's dubbed Lodgify 2.0. Think: fewer clunky interfaces, more Stripe-like booking flows, and a relentless focus on what hosts have always cared about—trust, time savings, and more bookings. This one's for the rebels, the brand builders, and anyone who's ever screamed at a janky checkout page and thought, “There has to be a better way.” Behind the Stays is brought to you by Journey — a first-of-its-kind loyalty program that brings together an alliance of the world's top independently owned and operated stays and allows travelers to earn points and perks on boutique hotels, vacation rentals, treehouses, ski chalets, glamping experiences and so much more. Your host is Zach Busekrus, Head of the Journey Alliance. If you are a hospitality entrepreneur who has a stay, or a collection of stays with soul, we'd love for you to apply to join our Alliance at journey.com/alliance. 

Visit thedigitalslicepodcast.com for complete show notes of every podcast episode. In this episode of The Digital Slice Podcast, Brad Friedman and Dmitry Dragilev discuss the state of SEO in 2025 and the tactics your brand needs to succeed. Dmitry Dragilev is an online entrepreneur who has built four software businesses, which were acquired by Google in 2014, Semrush in 2023, early Slack employees, and Mangools in 2024. His current role is the Growth Advisor at Mangools, where he is helping scale a set of simple and powerful SEO tools for any business or brand. He has utilized unconventional content marketing, PR, and SEO to scale his companies and achieve all four exits.  He has consulted and helped over 100 companies in the last decade, including DowJones, Realtor.com, Nextiva, Aura, Pipedrive, Wistia, CultureAmp, Backlinko, Helpscout rank #1 organically on Google for their key terms. Dmitry is a contributor for Intuit, Forbes, Entrepreneur, TheNextWeb, TechCrunch, Moz, AListApart, SEMRush, Mashable, Huffington Post, WIRED and many others. The Digital Slice Podcast is brought to you by Magai. Up your AI game at https://friedmansocialmedia.com/magai

BONUS: Martti Kuldma shares how to transform century-old organizations through product-driven agile transformation In this BONUS episode we explore the remarkable transformation journey at Omniva with CEO Martti Kuldma. From traditional postal services to innovative logistics solutions, we explore how a 100+ year old company embraced product thinking, DevOps practices, and agile transformation to become a competitive force in modern logistics. Omniva's Digital Evolution—IT as a Revenue Center "We innovated the parcel machine business for a few years, and software has been an area of investment for us - software as a separate vertical in our business." Omniva represents a fascinating case study in organizational transformation. While many know it as Estonia's post office, the company has evolved into an international logistics powerhouse with significant revenue streams beyond traditional postal services. Under Martti's leadership, the organization has reimagined software not as a support function but as a core revenue driver, positioning itself for the dramatic shifts expected in logistics delivery over the next five years. The Vision: Physical Mailing as the Next IP Network "The Vision: physical mailing as the next IP network - this will give us a lot more freedom to adapt to changes in delivery demand." Martti's strategic vision extends far beyond conventional logistics thinking. By conceptualizing physical delivery networks similar to internet protocols, Omniva is preparing for a future where logistics companies leverage their physical infrastructure advantages. This approach addresses the fundamental challenge of fluctuating demand in e-commerce and traditional logistics, creating opportunities for crowd delivery solutions and gig economy integration that capitalize on existing network effects. Breaking Down Waterfall Barriers "When I came we had waterfall processes - annual budgeting, procurement for software development. It took a couple of weeks to do the first rounds, and understand what could be improved." The transformation from traditional procurement-based software development to agile product teams required dismantling entrenched processes. Martti discovered that the contractor model, while seemingly cost-effective, created expensive knowledge transfer cycles and left the organization vulnerable when external teams departed. His engineering background enabled him to recruit talent and build sustainable development capabilities that keep critical knowledge within the organization. Creating Cross-Functional Product Teams "We started to create cross-functional product area teams. We are not going to tell you what you need to build. You are accountable for the logistics efficiency." The shift from eleven distinct roles in software development to autonomous product teams represents more than organizational restructuring. By empowering teams with accountability for business outcomes rather than just deliverables, Omniva transformed how work gets planned and executed. This approach eliminates traditional handoffs and role silos, creating teams that own both the problem and the solution. The Product Manager Evolution "For me, the PM is directly accountable for the business results. The final step of the transformation started when I took the CEO role." Martti identifies a critical challenge in agile transformations: the misunderstanding of Product Manager responsibilities. Rather than falling into delivery or project management patterns, effective PMs at Omniva own business results directly. This shift required company-wide transformation because technical changes alone cannot sustain organizational evolution without corresponding changes in mindset and accountability structures. Leadership Through Storytelling "My main tool is just talking. All I do is story-telling internally and externally. I needed to become the best salesman in the company." The transition from technical leadership to CEO revealed that transformation leadership requires different skills than technical management. Martti discovered that his primary value comes through narrative construction and communication rather than direct technical contribution. This realization highlights how senior leaders must evolve their impact methods as organizations scale and transform. Real-Time Feedback Philosophy "The feedback needs to be given immediately. ‘Last year, in May your performance was not the best' - this is completely useless feedback." Martti's rejection of annual reviews stems from practical experience with feedback effectiveness. Immediate, personal feedback creates learning opportunities and course corrections that annual cycles cannot provide. Anonymous 360 feedback systems often dilute accountability and actionability, whereas direct, timely conversations enable meaningful professional development and relationship building. Essential Transformation Practices "You need to tell the story - and convince people that this transformation is essential and needed. You need to trust and let them make their own decisions." Drawing from experiences at both Pipedrive and Omniva, Martti identifies three critical elements for leading complex organizational change: Compelling narrative: People need to understand why transformation is necessary and how it benefits both the organization and their individual growth Distributed decision-making: Trust enables teams to solve problems creatively rather than waiting for hierarchical approval Business accountability for engineers: When technical teams understand and own business outcomes, they innovate more effectively toward meaningful goals The dynamic team formation model used at Pipedrive, where engineers and PMs pitched ideas and assembled mission-focused teams, demonstrates how organizational structure can enable rather than constrain innovation. About Martti Kuldma Martti Kuldma is CEO of Omniva, leading its transformation into a product-driven logistics company. A former engineering leader at Pipedrive and CTO at Omniva, he brings deep expertise in scaling teams, agile transformation, and digital innovation. Martti is also a startup founder and passionate advocate for high-impact product organizations. You can link with Martti Kuldma on LinkedIn.

In this episode of the Transform Sales Podcast, Amir Reiter, Founder and CEO at CloudTask, talks with Jen Steele, Co-Founder and CEO at SoundGTM. They discuss how SoundGTM enables B2B startups and sales teams to scale pipeline efficiently through automated referral partnerships. Jen shares insights into the pain points of managing referral and affiliate programs manually, emphasizing how SoundGTM simplifies commission tracking, partner payments, and integration with popular CRMs like HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive. Discover how SoundGTM can streamline your partner referrals, drive predictable revenue, and significantly reduce operational headaches. Try SoundGTM here: https://software.cloudtask.com/soundgtm-88530b #OutboundSales #ReferralMarketing #SalesPartnerships #B2BGrowth #SoundGTM

Realtors, ready to slash your workload and still close more deals? Discover how AI-driven Realtor tools are helping agents automate follow-ups, generate custom CMAs, and find their perfect niche—without lifting a finger. In this episode, tech strategist Jeff Loyd reveals how to future-proof your real estate career and start working smarter today.

Ep. 323 Did you know you can build a custom AI-powered marketing grader for any tactic in just minutes? Kieran dives into the exact process he uses to instantly evaluate and improve marketing work with AI—from legendary copywriting principles to advanced product positioning feedback. Learn how to swipe timeless tactics, engineer prompts for your unique needs, and create a universal marketing grader to upgrade your product launches, landing pages, paid campaigns, and more. Mentions Marketing tactics falling flat? Get 1,000+ AI Marketing Prompts: https://clickhubspot.com/wtc David Ogilvy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ogilvy_(businessman) HubSpot's CRM https://www.hubspot.com/products/crm Pipedrive https://www.pipedrive.com/ Gong https://www.gong.io/ Get our guide to build your own Custom GPT: https://clickhubspot.com/customgpt We're creating our next round of content and want to ensure it tackles the challenges you're facing at work or in your business. To understand your biggest challenges we've put together a survey and we'd love to hear from you! https://bit.ly/matg-research Resource [Free] Steal our favorite AI Prompts featured on the show! Grab them here: https://clickhubspot.com/aip We're on Social Media! Follow us for everyday marketing wisdom straight to your feed YouTube: ​​https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGtXqPiNV8YC0GMUzY-EUFg  Twitter: https://twitter.com/matgpod  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matgpod  Join our community https://landing.connect.com/matg Thank you for tuning into Marketing Against The Grain! Don't forget to hit subscribe and follow us on Apple Podcasts (so you never miss an episode)! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/marketing-against-the-grain/id1616700934   If you love this show, please leave us a 5-Star Review https://link.chtbl.com/h9_sjBKH and share your favorite episodes with friends. We really appreciate your support. Host Links: Kipp Bodnar, https://twitter.com/kippbodnar   Kieran Flanagan, https://twitter.com/searchbrat  ‘Marketing Against The Grain' is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by Hubspot Media // Produced by Darren Clarke.

In this episode of HR Like a Boss, John chats with Tom McCarty, CEO of OrgChart, to discuss the power of HR data and analytics in driving business success. Tom shares insights on the importance of visualizing organizational structures, leveraging HR technology, and using data to lead strategic conversations rather than getting lost in numbers. He highlights the value of curiosity, communication, and asking the right questions to maximize the potential of a company's most valuable asset: its people. Tune in to discover how HR can move beyond administration to become a data-driven strategic force in business.ABOUT TOM MCCARTYTom McCarty is a seasoned sales and operations executive with over 20 years of experience in transforming businesses and optimizing sales and operational efficiency. He currently serves as the CEO of OrgChart, LLC, a position he has held since November 2021. Under his leadership, OrgChart has successfully expanded its reach, streamlined operations, and achieved significant growth in a competitive market. Before joining OrgChart, McCarty held executive roles at several high-growth SaaS companies, including Intuit, Pipedrive, Chatlingual, and Xero, where he played critical roles in building and scaling those businesses. McCarty's career was shaped by his 13 years at Dell Technologies, where he progressively took on more complex and high-impact roles. Throughout his tenure with Dell, his leadership was instrumental in driving growth across multiple regions and functions, navigating large-scale operational changes, enhancing cross-functional collaboration, and optimizing strategic initiatives across the business. McCarty's expertise spans across sales leadership, global operations, and strategic growth initiatives. He is known for his ability to lead large teams, drive efficiency, and deliver exceptional results, all while cultivating a culture of collaboration and performance excellence. He lives in Denver, CO with his wife, two boys, and their dog. In his spare time, McCarty is a dedicated father who enjoys attending his boys' cross-country races, taking family vacations, and exploring the outdoors.

Hala Taha built an eight-figure media company using data-driven sales strategies and activity-based selling to close high-value deals. As a successful entrepreneur, she knows that sales success isn't about luck. It comes from mastering the right tools, prospecting strategically, and developing a resilient mindset. In this episode, Hala breaks down how to scale smarter, optimize your funnel, and boost conversions. She also shares insights on leveraging AI in business, tracking your pipeline effectively, and managing deals seamlessly with CRM tools like Pipedrive. In this episode, Hala will discuss:  (00:00) Introduction (01:30) Webinar Overview (05:27) Understanding Bottoms Up Sales Strategy (07:48) Activity-Based Selling Explained (10:02) Driver Trees and Performance Metrics (19:39) Becoming a Sales Psychopath with Shelby Sapp (28:40) Pipedrive Demo and Features (34:44) Introduction to Pipedrive (35:48) Optimizing Sales Funnels with Sean Cannell (36:27) Improving Conversion Rates with Russell Brunson (43:13) Analyzing Competitor Funnels (46:44) Prioritizing Sales Calls (50:41) Identifying Fool or Favorite Clients (58:27) Leveraging AI in Sales Hala Taha is the host of Young and Profiting, the number one entrepreneurship and business podcast. She is the Founder and CEO of YAP Media, an award-winning social media and podcast production agency. She also founded YAP Media Podcast Network, a top business and self-improvement podcast network, where she helps business podcasters like Jenna Kutcher, Amy Porterfield, Neil Patel, and Russell Brunson grow and monetize their platforms. Resources Mentioned: Get a free 14-day trial and 20% off your membership with Pipedrive: youngandprofiting.co/sales  Pipedrive Slides: youngandprofiting.co/PipedriveSlides Sponsored By: Shopify - youngandprofiting.co/shopify Airbnb - airbnb.com/host Rocket Money - rocketmoney.com/profiting Indeed - indeed.com/profiting    RobinHood - robinhood.com/gold Factor - factormeals.com/factorpodcast   Rakuten - rakuten.com Microsoft Teams - aka.ms/profiting Active Deals - youngandprofiting.com/deals   Key YAP Links Reviews - ratethispodcast.com/yap  Youtube - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting  LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/  Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/  Social + Podcast Services: yapmedia.com  Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com/episodes-new  Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Podcast, Business, Business Podcast, Self Improvement, Self-Improvement, Personal Development, Starting a Business, Strategy, Investing, Sales, Selling, Psychology, Productivity, Entrepreneurs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Marketing, Negotiation, Money, Finance, Side Hustle, Mental Health, Career, Leadership, Mindset, Health, Growth Mindset, Online Selling, Economics, E-Commerce, Ecommerce, Negotiation, Persuasion, Inbound, Value Selling, Account Management, Scale, Sales Podcast.

According to Salesforce research, 66% of sales representatives feel overwhelmed by the number of tools they use. So how can you streamline your tech stack to enhance operational efficiency and drive revenue growth?Shawnna Sumaoang: Hi, and welcome to the Win Win podcast. I am your host, Shawnna Sumaoang. Join us as we dive into changing trends in the workplace and how to navigate them successfully. Here to discuss this topic is Serge Lobo, the Chief Revenue Officer at Loadstone. Thank you for joining us. I’d love for you to tell us about yourself, your background, and your role. Serge Lobo: Thank you, Shawnna. Thanks for having me here today. What is this year today? So I’m 27 years in sales, 23 years in sales management. I used to work for multiple different known brands like Microsoft, HP, Pegasystems, Ingenico, and SAS, so that’s a famous analytics company. And now I’m chief revenue officer, so we try to get The right title for my position because nowadays in size business, the revenue comes not only from sales, but also from retention of the customers. So my role is actually to wrench all the sales processes and ensure that the customers are getting the right impact so that we managed to retain them and then ensure that they grow together with us. SS: Amazing. Well, thank you again for joining us today. Given your extensive experience in sales leadership across both large enterprises and startup organizations, I’d love to understand how does your background influence your strategy for driving global revenue growth at Loadstone? SL: I play the thinking first of all, so before making any moves, any discussion. So we need to think of what do we want to achieve here rather than just get the contract. Yeah, it’s not as simple as it used to be when you get a call and then just because you have a fascinating piece of software, someone getting excited and then just signs the contract. Not anymore. A lot of competitors, like in our space, we just made a rough calculations and we had. We counted like 14, 000 companies worldwide that are doing pretty much the same things as we do 14, 000. Yeah, that’s a lot. And, uh, the concept that I apply is that first of all, so we need to think of how we drive the process and then go after automation of that. So we need to design the processes. We need to get to build the operating model, and then we need to understand the requirements for the systems for the systems that we want to deploy and to benefit from them. And of course, well, all that. Goes through the, uh, revenue thinking. I’m a chief revenue officer. So I’m partially responsible not only for revenue, but also for spendings. Yeah. So spendings are also the key elements. So every solution that we’re using should be cost efficient for us. SS: Amazing. And I understand Lodestone recently went through a rebrand, which can bring a lot of significant changes for the sales team. What are some of your best practices for helping your teams effectively navigate this transition? SL: Well, first of all is, uh, we need to be transparent. Yeah. We need to be transparent and we need to make sure that the team buys the general idea. And then the team is ready for change. Cause as for any human being, the change is the biggest challenge. Yeah. So after five years old, so then we are really hesitant to change, which is surprising before five years, we want to try everything. You want to change everything like every day. After we are five years old. So we become really hesitant to that. That’s pretty much the major challenge that we have when we change anything in the company. We won’t change the sales process and we need to sell that first to people. And sometimes it’s, it’s not an easy task. And so we try different means of getting that to people so that they start to use that. It’s because it’s not only to make. People try to stand that, right? But it’s also like, do you use that in like everyday work? Do you use that in everyday customer discussions? Do you use that when you talk to your peers? And so that’s most difficult. And so we spend a huge amount of time now in terms of like getting them to people so that they start using that. Yeah. Cause we have people from different generations, different background, different experience. And so of course, well, they try to use the experience first. All right, so we are now in Lodestone. Okay, so what’s your product, product X, Y, Z. All right, let me try to sell that. And then we need to make sure that people are doing that in the right way. Yeah. Cause we see that there is a best practice and there’s some practices that have very little propensity to be successful. Yeah. So we need to increase that chance. We need to give people not only the automation tools, but also the methodology and the process tools so that they speak in the right way to the customers. SS: Absolutely. And as you mentioned, when these organizational changes happen, you often have to reshape the sales process. And I know that’s one of your key focuses. What challenges have you faced in optimizing sales processes and how have you overcome them? SL: Well, the first is to measure the measurement of the current status and the measurement of the target status, say in my career when they try to do the major change, so then people want to move fast. Yeah, okay So let’s move fast. Let’s change everything Let’s do it for the best But then when we try to analyze and to think on what will be a successful change. Then we need to define the target where we are today where we want to go in the future And that’s the number one thing. Then the second thing is really to get people involved into that change. And what I do usually throughout my career since my early management years, so I try to involve people, you know, so involving people into designing that process because they know about what’s going on in the field and then they know better what might work in order to do it best. Yeah. And then of course, well, if there are some good people with different experience also, but different attitude to the process. So they usually get some really good insights and really good advisors and me as a manager. So I usually facilitate that process, even though I might know the final answer. So, but I then guide people to the final answer, which is right so that they cannot escape them from deploying that and usage of those process, those ideas, those guidelines that they designed literally for themselves. SS: I think those are some great best practices now from your perspective, what is the strategic advantage of an enablement platform and helping organizations improve sales processes and really drive operational efficiency? SL: Some years ago, I heard that statement when the boss asked, what if we enable people teach them to do and they leave? And then the sales manager answers that question with another question. What if we don’t enable them? We don’t teach them and they stay. So that’s literally it. So that’s a key element of any successful sales organization to enable people, not only of the product knowledge, not only of the pricing tools, but the way you sell that, because nowadays this is not a challenge to sell something. It’s in fact, the challenge, the huge challenge is to buy, and if we analyze the customer processes, then we will find out that the process to buy something is by far more complicated than the process to sell something. And so we need now to understand and to guide our salespeople, to be the helper in that journey, for the customer to fulfill their buying intentions, to fulfill their buying process in the best way, because well, they buy it once, but we sell it like on a multiple times. And so we now. What are the intentions of the customer in the process of what will be the next step? How to justify this or that step, justify this or that number. Yeah, so all of those talking to people in numbers, talking to people in financials that requires a huge amount of routine operations and a huge amount of experience. So you need to be very comfortable to do that. Yeah, and in order to do that, you cannot do that on the fly. So you need to be enabled properly. You need to be enabled through the business cases. You need to be enabled through the rehearsals of the pitches. You need to be enabled through the templates. And of course, all of that, the combination of all those streams. So it becomes kind of the most important part of the, uh, in the company, because all the rest is just the outcomes on how good your people are trained, how good people are enabled if they’re not. There’s a very little chance that they form well and you build up the sustainable system of sales, a sustainable organization. And that’s why actually, so the first thing I did in Loadstone, when I joined the company, I asked, do we use any kind of database or knowledge base enablement system? Do we have any enabling processes for people who come to Lodestone, who come to, uh, to join our great team and, uh, make sure that we multiply our, Successful cases and best practices. And the answer was like, well, really, so yeah, we got some Google Docs, multiple slides for people trying to serve there. And, um, literally, so they, sometimes they just get drawn in those multiple artifacts and never, never came up. So that’s why we decided for a different approach. SS: Well, I love that you’re taking that and from a sales leader perspective, what role does leadership play in really fostering a culture of efficiency? SL: Let me give you an example. So for every single new employee that comes into a client facing role, I spend at least four and a half hours of my time for every single employee, not a group level, like on individual level on getting people through our operating model. How do we work on getting people known? What do we sell on getting people know? What are the major tools that I’m looking as a zero on the management? So means that We try to get our employees, our sales or client facing people, not only through the tools, but also through the cultural DNA. So what the company is, what are we doing? Well, why are we doing this? Why we don’t do that? Why we don’t push in the products? Why I didn’t need the contract without knowledge of the customers? Yeah. Because sometimes, well, there are people who come up to and say, Hey, here’s a contract. I just signed it. I said, do you have enough information about that customer? Well, who cares? Yeah, I just signed the contract. Well, I do care because, well, there’s a little chance to retain that customer in one or two years just because, well, we did the last job during the sales process. No, that’s not the DNA of the company, and we explained that right from the beginning of the employee journey in our company. SS: I love that. I love that’s part of the DNA. Now, you mentioned that automation has played a key role in helping you drive operational efficiency, such as your automated process for content governance. Can you tell us more about this process and how you’re automating sales workflows? SL: Well, the sales workflows are being automated with a solution from the company called Pipedrive. So that’s our sales automation tool. But everything aside of that, so it means the knowledge base and some parts of the customer interaction workflows, including learning and management, we are automating that with Highspot. So we’ve came across Highspot a couple of years ago. And so I found it really fascinating because I know in my previous companies we’ve had. Self enablement platforms. And that time I was like thinking, okay, so we don’t have enough resources to develop anything, which would be at least at the level of what I used to have in my previous companies. And then I came across Highspot and I was like, really? So can these guys do this and this and this? And then we came through a couple of use cases and then we understand, okay, so Highspot is a good, probably a good selection for us. And then when I understood that this is a great selection for us is that when we start talking money. Cause this was literally like the, the only provider who managed to convince me from the money standpoint, from financial standpoint, rather than the features and functions. So, and that’s still the example for, even for my salespeople, I still have that first proposal from Highspot saying, all right, so this is how the proposal should look like for, for our customers, because that speaks in terms of financials, mostly rather than features and functions. Then that impressed me a lot. And so I understood that company wise, we have pretty much similar DNA. Because we also talk to our customers, not for features and functions, but through the benefit that they may get from usage of our software. SS: Well, I have to say, you guys are doing amazing with streamlining those processes. And you’ve also driven really strong engagement from the sales team with 95 percent recurring usage and Highspot. What are some of your best practices for driving adoption of these investments that you’ve made in tools for your sales team? SL: Well, first of all, what I was impressed at the beginning is how I might use that for customer interactions. So the functionality of what they call the pitching and that transformed into creation of Digital Rooms. So that allows us to create a very personal lending. Content page for all customers. So whenever I want to share something with the customers, I make my people to share that through the pitching of the Highspot because I can definitely say whether this content was attractive or not, whether this content was read, how much time was spent in reading of that content? Because that’s very important for me. And I had a couple of times I even had some nasty customers had a situation when, you know, me personally, I was sending them the pitch and then I called them and said, hey, we spend a time, we prepared a proposal for you. Well, what do you say? He said, well, um, I read this proposal. I never saw that being opened and we don’t go, okay, all right. So I don’t want to spend the time with you just because, well, it doesn’t make sense for you. Okay. If it doesn’t make sense for you, it doesn’t make sense for us, but pitching is a very important part of custom interactions and that drove a lot of ROI for us. Because we now see that those customers who are mostly interacting with this landing pages, personal landing pages, they close the deals with us quite fast. So then the second one is, of course, for the internal knowledge base. So we found that those people who are most readers in Highspot, they are, surprise surprise, our top performers, yeah? Because in a lot of cases, you might face this situation when you just create some kind of piece of content and then you ask your people to read this, read this, listen to this, watch this, and then say, well, listen, well, I don’t have time, I have a custom meeting, I don’t have time, it’s just too long, can you just make it one page of me? And the bottom line, those who read most are the top performers. What a sequence, yeah? So that structure actually helps us to build up the sales guides to check what are the most useful pieces of information that we have in a high spot, also from to spend the time on developing or stop developing certain pieces of content at a time. SS: Absolutely. Absolutely. Those are amazing. And since implementing Highspot, do you have any business results that you can share or any wins that you can share? SL: Well, in fact, it’s really hard to measure the effectiveness of sales enablement rather than through the sales results. And so I know for sure that we increased our conversion rates by 110%. So that’s, that’s the official number from our Pipedrive. So just getting prepared for the session, I asked the CRM team, what’s the result or what do we have from numbers? And it told me, well, we have this and this and this. And I think, well, this is the highest award for me. To understand what’s the efficiency of Highspot in Loadstone. Yeah, 110 percent of onversion growth. And, we have today, I think, over 7, 000 artifacts or pieces of information that we uploaded. And we have a very, uh, a very big open rate for those pitches that, that our customers are getting from our client success managers. So that’s, we are delivering, I think while we are delivering at least month to month, that’s a different number, but this is around 200 pitches per month for us, which means that we have a lot of those personal interactive sessions. SS: Amazing. Amazing. Well, last question for you, I loved hearing about kind of your journey in terms of the rebrand and the sales process, see optimizations, but I’d love to understand as you’re kind of looking ahead as someone who is passionate about innovation and operational efficiency, how do you envision leveraging AI to further enhance your strategy for driving revenue growth? SL: Oh, that’s a buzzword today. Well, actually in content of knowledge management, AI should help people to have all information on the top of their fingers. Yeah. So whatever you ask, you need to have the concentrated answer. So, and that’s where AI can help to get known to new information. Because, well, I told you, we have 7, 000 pieces of information. How do you navigate through that? Yeah. That’s really challenging. And in fact, so so this is what we’re looking for is that a I will help us to get first of all, like a little pieces off and concentrated pieces of information to start your journey into specific area of knowledge and if you understand that, well, this specific thing is of value for me is a value for my customer, I need to get deeper. And so then depending on the depth, so AI should be helping people to get as much concentration of the information that they need in this specific level. Cause, uh, yeah, we do have this pieces of information, like 70 pages it sounds reference guide. Yeah. So then you cannot make people to read it nowadays. But then is this a valuable piece of information? Of course it is. Yes. And we have the reason why it’s 70 pages, not 50, not 30, not 20, not one. There’s a lot of valuable information, but I don’t need it at the same time all the time. Yeah. I need the piece of information which will be valuable for me right here. Right now. And so AI might be a very helpful tool in that. So that’s how I see that. So needless to say, for the international companies, you have a lot of pieces of information that should be translated into multiple languages. So that’s also the help of, uh, that’s with AI tools. You save huge amount of time now to do that completed. Yet you have like write visuals, write text, optimize text to the specific cultural languages and so on and so forth. That’s something that AI already helps us a lot, but then I see that we’re still in the beginning of the journey. SS: Yes. Yes. There’s a lot more that I think it’ll bring over the fullness of time, so I’m excited to see where it takes us. Serge, thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate your time and your thoughts. SL: Thanks Shawnna! SS: To our audience, thank you for listening to this episode of the Win Win Podcast. Be sure to tune in next time for more insights on how you can maximize enablement success with Highspot.

Can simply showing up in your community drive a successful marketing strategy, or is there a deeper game in play?In this episode of the Ground Marketing Series, we're exploring the fundamental tools and strategies that translate presence into meaningful growth. Contrary to the notion that just "showing up" is enough, I'm uncovering the structured, systematic approaches crucial for relationship-building and impactful outreach. I'm sharing insights into the key psychological principles that form the backbone of effective marketing—such as the law of familiarity, reciprocity, social proof, commitment, and consistency—ensuring long-term success and a steady influx of new patients.The toolkits we dive into provide a roadmap to a seamless ground marketing campaign. From the Relationship Building Toolkit, packed with business partnership essentials, to the Mobile Marketing Toolkit, which equips your team with visually impactful portable branding and lead collection tools, every element is crafted to maximize engagement. Additionally, the Content and Messaging Toolkit empowers practices to maintain consistent and appealing communication. We'll also explore systemizing processes for scaling efficiently, highlighting strategies like automated follow-ups and comprehensive team training programs.What You'll Learn in This Episode:The role of psychological principles in building sustainable marketing strategies.Essential components of a Relationship Building Toolkit.How a Mobile Marketing Toolkit can amplify your outreach efforts.Key elements of effective content and messaging for dental practices.Techniques for systemizing and scaling your marketing campaigns.The benefits of automated follow-ups and consistent team training.Tune in now to discover the foundational pillars of ground marketing and your outreach efforts!‍‍Learn More About the Ground Marketing Course Here:Website: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/the-ground-marketing-course-open-enrollment/‍Other Mentions and Links:‍Products:My Top Tools For Ground Marketing At EventsiPad‍Customer Relationship Managers:HubSpotPipedrive‍Communities:Dentaltown‍Businesses:Trader Joe's‍If you want your questions answered on Monday Morning Episodes, ask me on these platforms:My Newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/The Dental Marketer Society Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031814726927041‍Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors)‍Michael: All right, we're going to be discussing setting up for success, the ground marketing foundations.this is the essential tools and resources to get started. So now we're getting more tangible, right? The tools that you're going to need. Now, ground marketing is not just about showing up. It requires a structured strategy, the right tools and a systematized approach to maximize results.So throw everything out in case you thought I can just show up to a business and introduce myself and that's ground marketing. Nope, that is not ground marketing. You need a structured strategy. You need the right tools and you need a systematized approach to make sure you are effective. Now, I'm going to break down the fundamental components needed to set up a high performing ground marketing framework that ensures consistency, scalability, and long term success.Okay?Now remember, to start off, the thing you need to keep in mind is the core mindset. for ground marketing as a long term system. Now here's the thing. Many practices fail at ground marketing because they treat it as a one time promotional tactic instead of repeatable system, okay?The key to long term success is consistency, relationship building, and proper execution. Remember the psychological principles that will ensure this success. It's number one, the law of familiarity. People trust what they see repeatedly and ground marketing must be ongoing, not a one time event to the principle of reciprocity, give value first, and people will feel inclined to reciprocate.Three, the social proof effect. When people see others engaging with your brand, they assume it's reputable and worth their time. And for the commitment and consistency rule, small commitments. Increase the likelihood of larger commitments. So make sure you have those four psychological principles always in mind.Now they have to consistently see you. Ground marketing must be ongoing. And honestly, that's probably already what's going to separate you from all your other competitors, all the other practices, DSOs, prior practices in your area, especially if you're in a, saturated location, this alone, the law of familiarity will separate you if you're consistent.Here's a pro tip. Ground marketing must be a structured, trackable system, not random outreach. As soon as it starts feeling random, something is out of place. It has to be trackable and it has to be structured always. So that's why I say, throw that mindset away where you're like, I'm going to go out and ground market.We're in a busy shopping strip and there's a bunch of stuff. And I'm just going to go out there and hand out my cards and give donuts. And no, no, that's not trackable. That's not even a system. That's not structured. You're just going out there and in our treats I mean, You could do that if you want, and it might work here and there, but it's not a system.Build processes that are easy to follow and repeatable for your team. And that's what I'm going to give you right now. Okay? You're going to build a process that's easy to follow and it's repeatable for your team. And obviously, if you're in the ground marketing course, then you know how to do this and I provide you a template and everything like that.That's what you want to do. So number two for this episode is essential tools for ground marketing success. And here's the tools, right? A relationship building toolkit. This is going to be your toolkit to connecting with key community influencers. So to build strong partnerships, you need tools that help you establish report and credibility with local businesses, schools, mainly the school districts, Or the principals and specific organizations or corporations, HR services, things like that. human resources. The people who are in charge of logistics centers. If it's a warehouse, all these things, right? You're going to need number one, a business partnership kit, What can be involved in this kid is a, customized welcome packet, It's a practice intro letter. Maybe your specific business card, a small gift, testimonial sheets, that's in the welcome packet, customized. the second thing that it can have is a co branded flyer, and that can offer an exclusive discount for employees or the customers there, okay? It has to be an exclusive discount for them.And then three, it can be a sign up sheet for employees to schedule appointments directly at the workplace. it can be a glorified signup sheet, right? Just your practice name, the incentive you want to give and the name number, best time to reach you at, or text or call or whatever like that, right?Circle one. And that signup sheet is for the employees. That's going to guarantee you your second visit there. Although the co branded flyers will also guarantee you the second date too, as well. And what I mean by that is let's just say you're going to an apartment complex You're talking to the property management in the front. It might be like the manager, maybe you're talking to all three or four or ten of them, whoever, right? So you're going to give them a customized welcome packet, right? For their move ins. You're going to give them the sign up sheet for them. And then the flyers for the people there, right? Or at the event the apartment complexes have event all the time.So maybe you have flyers that you want to give out or welcome packets. You never want to give out a hundred of them. You never want to give out 50 of them, even if they have a thousand residents, a thousand employees, a thousand, whatever, just give out 10 for now, 15 for now. And then you're able to come back in a couple of days, or even come back in a month and say, Hey, we wanted to drop off some more flyers.Can I have some of your information as well? Right. Or, Hey, we want to drop off more flyers. Do you guys need more? What is the deal? And at the same time you can look at the signup sheet. So you have two reasons for this second date to see them again. It can either be the flyer like that, how I mentioned, or you can come back and pick up the actual signup sheet and, start calling people.that's always the best thing. You want to come back and pick up the signup sheet. But anyways, I digress, that's going to be in another episode. Business Partnership Kit. It should have a customized welcome packet, Your intro letter, business card, small gift and testimonial sheet, or if you want, right?Two is a co branded flyer offering exclusive discounts for the employees or the customers. If it's like a small amount of customers, right? For example, let's just say you're going to a Gymboree or a pediatric. Location. I don't know. Medical location specifically, like those customers never like to a customers, if you're going to a Trader Joe's or something like that, because that's not,their job is not to promote you. Their job is to do their job. And so that would be more for, if you're going to create a co branded flyer with an exclusive discount for the customer. And that would be more for a smaller location, like a pediatrician office, a Gymboree, a medical location, something specific, So a co branded flyer offering an exclusive discount for the employees primarily, and then a signup sheet for employees to schedule appointments directly at the workplace that's in your business Next thing is your networking and relationship log. This is huge.This I talk about, and I have a whole unit on this on the ground marketing course, but you want to track your interactions, track your followups and key contacts. This is simple guys. It's as simple as creating a Google sheet or having a CRM like HubSpot or PipeDrive to track. You want to track their contact name and business, the date of the initial outreach.Your follow up reminders and then notes on past conversations. There's never not enough information. You can put in there, put as much information on your notes, on the past conversations, your follow up reminders here is something I want to tell you. That's huge. the biggest mistake in ground marketing is failing to follow up.Relationships take multiple touch points before they yield results. I cannot tell you how many times people fail to follow up and that's the hole. That's the big hole. Where a lot of your effort will go to waste if you fail to follow up, meaning you're going out, you're dropping off sign up sheets. Maybe you forget a couple of people to pick up their sign up sheets, a couple businesses, you failed those businesses.Or maybe, a lot of the people in an event, They filled out their information and you're like, great, this is exciting. I'm going to call them, but then you get busy. You never do call them. You fail to follow up, or maybe you do call them, but then they say they're busy at the moment. And then if you can call them a little bit later, or you live a voicemail and you never call them again or reach out to them again, you fail to follow up.Following up is humongous in ground marketing and If you just follow the principle of being consistent, you're going to bring them all in, but you need to follow up. Okay, so make sure you have this networking and relationship log. You want to have their contact name and business, date of initial outreach, the follow up reminders on there, how often you want to follow up, and then notes on past conversations.Always have that on there. The more detailed, the better. Now, that's A, right? Your relationship building toolkit. You want to have those. Your business partnership kit, and that can be with your realtors, that can be with your, photographers, it can be with a lot of these, businesses that are like that.And then you want to have your networking and relationship log. Now B is your mobile marketing toolkit. Now this is what you hear a lot of people talk about, especially in Facebook groups, Dental Town, things like that. How to take your brand to the community. Now when engaging with the community, you need tools that make your brand stand out and create instant credibility.So you want to have a portable branding kit. And what I mean by that is have a branded table cover, right? For health fairs, schools, corporate visits lunch and learns just for the events. Have a branded table cover, a professional retractable banner with a clear call to action. Okay. Make sure it has a clear call to action.On what you want to do giveaway items, branded toothbrushes, floss, lip balm, mini hand sanitizers, mouthwash, things like that, right? Floss. You want to have giveaway items always with you ready portable teeth models for demonstrations, On brushing or just to make your booth look a little bit more exciting and always have memorized a quick 32nd pitch everywhere you go.and honestly, this was my quick 30 second pitch. So I'm going to just give it to you right here, right now. It was this simple. Hey, how's it going? Grab whatever you want. It's free. That's it. Was it even 30 seconds? It was like five seconds, right? Hey, how's it going?Grab whatever you want. It's free. And you just stay quiet. Now that was it when it came to booths and events and things like that. Any event, that's all I ever said. And once they came. And they did a little shopping. That's when I would start talking to them about their concerns, their needs, what we're doing, how we're partnering up with a specific location, what we got going on, the incentives and things like that.Think of a quick 32nd pitch always. Okay. That's your portable branding kit. Now your lead collection tools, how are you going to collect these leads? Now I would, and I still do have a signup sheet, just a regular signup sheet. At times I do use an iPad. I always want the ball in my court.So I would say either have a or you can have a QR code signup system. It makes it easy to capture emails and phone numbers. But me personally, I. Prefer to have a signup sheet where I'm actually writing your name and numbers down. Or an iPad where I'm actually writing your name and number down, but just on a digital form.And then the second thing you can have is raffle signup forms. People engage more if they get a chance to win something. And we're going to talk about that with events on another episode, but you're doing that, make sure everybody somehow wins something when you do a raffle. Okay? Because those are potential patients.Everyone is a potential patient to sign up, but you can have that raffle sign up. Right. And this is how you're collecting leads, names, and numbers. You're starting to get names and numbers now into your log, and you're going to start calling out to these people. Now, if you want, you can use QR codes linked to a special offer landing page to track how many people sign up from your ground marketing efforts.This is pretty trackable. Okay. So if they scan the QR code, then they're going to go to the landing page and now boom, you will see how many people at this event actually had interest, looked into the page. Maybe they didn't sign up. Maybe they did sign up and now you have even further details on who they were and stuff like that by using the QR code from this one specific event.So you can do that. Now those are going to be the two things, right? The A and B. Okay. Relationship Building Toolkit and then your Mobile Marketing Toolkit. Now the three things, C, is Content and Messaging Toolkit. So you want to pre frame your brand for trust and credibility. Your communication and marketing materials should be designed to quickly build trust and answer common objections.So have pre designed ground marketing flyers and handouts. Maybe have a general practice handout, an introduction to your office, services, and patient testimonials. Have specific service flyers. This helped a lot, especially at events. When I had one for Invisalign, there was some for dental implants.You can have some for sleep apnea treatment, things like that. Then have business partnership proposal flyers. Explain how partnering with your practice benefits local businesses. And that's all on you. How are you going to benefit them? Go into detail. Something, what we did and what you can talk about.Is once a month, we love to promote a specific, business. So if you want, you can just give us some of your information. We know you have your business cards locked up somewhere, just collecting dust. Why not give us a little bit of them and we will put them in our hygiene kits and we will talk you up and give it to our existing patients, right?Boom. That's more visibility for their business. And at the same time, once they give you a yes, let them know, Hey, would it be okay, we give you some of our information as well. During that month, they're going to see us the principle of reciprocity. Boom. So business partnership proposal flyer, you can steal that if you want, use it, but you can go deeper into that, or you can do something completely different.that is the pre designed ground marketing flyers and handouts. Then the second part of that would be customizable elevator pitch. Always have a 10 second hook, right? Hey, we help your children get the specific results they need with this unique approach, So always say we help a target audience get a specific result with a unique approach, and it doesn't have to be a super unique approach, but the way you word it has to sound unique.Okay. And then. You want to have a quick credibility statement. We've helped over 500 families in the area achieve better oral health. We've helped two thirds of our community, they love us, achieve a better smile, more confidence, right? And then just have a clear next step. You know, We're offering a free consultation.Would you like to schedule now? Actually, don't even ask them if you would like to schedule now. Just say, we're offering a free consultation. What's your name and number? I can get you in as soon as next week. Boom, And then continue that way. People trust and remember stories more than facts.So use patient success stories in your materials Okay. So remember, have a customizable elevator pitch, 10 second hook. We help a target audience get specific results with a unique approach. Then quick credibility statement. We've helped over 500 families in the area achieve better, whatever. And then a clear next step. If you want, we're offering a free consultation right now for the next 10 days. What's your name and number? I can get you in as soon as tomorrow. And boom, give them less time to think of an answer, but more give them the opportunity to give you an answer based on what their desire is and what they want immediately.when you do that, you can say like, Hey, I can get you in as soon as tomorrow. Does that work right now? They only have an option. Yes or no. Instead of like, Oh, let me look at my schedule for the next following 10 days. And Now that's the content and messaging toolkit. So I hope that helped out with the essential tools for ground market.That's what you're going to need. Okay. So real quick, essential tools for ground marketing. You're going to need your relationship building toolkit, which involves your business partnership kit and your network and relationship log. You're going to need your mobile marketing toolkit, which involves your portable branding kit.Your table cover, your table, even a chair, if you want professional retractable banners, your giveaway items, models, your pamphlets, things like that. Quick 30 second pitch. This is an event. And at the same time, I would say, add a, case that you can put everything in, I'm going to put a link And show notes below where I tell you what I use super simple stuff And it's like a case that has like wheels. You can just roll it almost like those bags you see in You know airports, but it's a lot bigger and it's a case where you can fit everything in there pretty easy You can just leave it in the trunk of your car So anyways, your mobile marketing toolkit it involves your portable branding kit and your lead collections tools And then see your content and messaging toolkit.And that involves your pre designed ground marketing flyers and handouts and your customizable elevator pitch. Now three is systemizing and scaling ground marketing efforts. So automating your follow ups for maximum conversions, most ground marketing leads don't convert immediately.A structured follow up system ensures high conversion rates. Meaning you go to an event, you get a hundred people signing up out of those hundred people. Maybe one third will come in pretty immediately. And then the other ones you're going to need to follow up and so forth, right? They're busy. Maybe they had something come up.It doesn't mean they're not interested. They're super interested. You just got to work with them. So immediate follow up same day. So send a personalized thank you message to new contacts, always right within the same day. And then within two to three days. Follow up, Hey, just checking in, send a text or email.Just wanted to check if you had any questions. We'd love to have you in for your free consultation. Remember, always have that sense of urgency. So you can say, Hey, just wanted to get you in before the month ends for that free consultation. So if you're ever offering anything for free, don't give it forever for free.Just say within this month, right? They know they have that time within this month, that it can run out. Now your month can run out in a week. If you're doing that event in a week from now, or it can run out in 30 days from now. But just make sure you say there's an urgency Then after that, if you still don't hear from them, follow up with them within seven days, right? Hey, we're offering the free teeth whining session for the next ten new patients. We'd love to get you in. It's coming down to the wire Just follow up with them if they haven't booked.And continue to follow up. and we're gonna have another episode on following up, but unless they tell you no, always continue to follow up. Don't put your feelings. Into their heart into their mind. Don't put your thoughts into their mind meaning Hey, I'm going to be bothering them.If I follow up too much. Hey, they're going to be mad at me. If I follow up too much. That's what you're thinking. They're busy. They're doing other things. They may want to do this immediately. And then boom, something else happens. And your follow up is a reminder. So do not do that. Cut that wire, cut that emotion, that connection.There's no connection there. Boom. Cut it out. You are relentless. Follow up right now. Be tactful when you follow up. Don't just continue to follow up. Every single day, all the time, but give us some space, give us some time, but some thought in your marketing messaging. And we're going to talk about that a couple episodes down the line on following up.Now that's how you want to do it with a systematizing, on your follow ups and then training your team for ground marketing success. Now, ground marketing is not a solo effort. Your team must be trained to execute consistently. So these things are super important role playing scripts for different scenarios, how to approach a local business, how to start a conversation at community events, and how to follow up out feeling salesy.Those are the three things you're going to role play all the time. I still role play. Okay. How to approach a local business, how to start a conversation at community events. How to follow up without feeling salesy, every single location, business, and so forth has a different script. And we're going to discuss those scenarios and those scripts and later episodes, but always role play.You want to train your team. And the second thing is assigned clear roles and responsibilities. Who is responsible for ground marketing, meaning they're responsible for initiating partnerships, tending events and fairs. Handling follow ups. Now we do have some members who split this up, meaning someone is responsible for building partnerships, pipelines, referrals.Someone is responsible for accumulating events, attending events and fairs. And then someone is responsible separate for handling follow ups. They're on the phones. They're doing all the follow ups because they're just ground marketing everywhere. there is people who do that. And obviously that's.The more focused on a specific thing, the better results. So that I've seen work incredible and I can't take credit for that. We have other team members and we have other members in the ground marketing course who initiated that and it works fantastic, but no harm, no foul. I did all this and you can have one person in charge of the ground marketing and they can do that, but just make sure you assign clear roles and responsibilities.Nothing should be lost. The best ground marketing teams practice scenarios weekly until responses feel natural. So the whole team should be practicing this. Everybody should be on the same page and at the same time they should also see, okay, this person's out ground marketing, they're building partnerships.The team should know where the ground marketer is at or what's happening as far as events and health fairs. Now if it's a huge event and health fair, obviously more team members are going to be involved. More people will know. Assign clear roles and responsibilities. Alright, so hopefully we understand that and coming to an end here on the episode.So by combining the right mindset, the right tools, and execution plan, ground marketing becomes a powerful engine for predictable patient growth. So in summary, you want to develop the right mindset, right? Remember, ground marketing is a system, not a one time effort. You want to equip yourself with the right tools, have your relationship building kits, branding materials, and lead collection tools.Document everything too. Okay. Three, systemize outreach and follow up. So you want to track your interactions, automate follow ups, and leverage relationship building psychology, Use reciprocity, use consistency, use scarcity, urgency, things like that. Four, train your team to execute consistently.Ground marketing thrives when everyone follows a structured approach. So train them to do that. Ground marketing is one of the most effective, powerful strategies for long term patient growth. with the right foundation, Your practice can become the go to provider in your community without relying on expensive ads anymore.So go ahead and do this, make sure you got this locked and loaded and ready. And then in the next episode, we're going to be discussing identifying your target audience. Remember the more focused you are with crowd marketing, the better. So we're going to discuss how you can focus and zone in on your target audience.Thank you so much for tuning in. And if you want more information, the scripts, scenarios, templates want to see real live action, me actually doing this and so much more be part of the community of ground marketers, then you can do so by joining the ground marketing course. You can either Google it, the ground marketing course, or you can go in the show notes below, click the first link in the show notes below, see what everyone's saying and join the ground marketing course.And if you do, I'm excited to see you in there. All right. Thank you so much for tuning in and we'll talk to you in the next episode.

Clark Johannson, President and CEO of ClickSpace, board member at Young Presidents' Organization (YPO), and Director at A100, shares his expertise on advanced B2B performance marketing strategies, emphasizing the importance of unit economics, marketing intelligence and customer insights. Through decades of entrepreneurial experience, Clark provides actionable insights into revenue predictability, marketing efficiency and the mindset shift required for true growth marketing success.Key Takeaways:(02:49) The critical role of customer intimacy in startups to make informed decisions due to limited resources.(05:19) The struggle with predictable revenue in marketing due to lack of marketing visibility and misallocation of resources.(06:30) Why marketing tracking is essential because without it, businesses waste time and money on ineffective marketing channels.(16:04) The importance of marketing unit economics for sustainable growth to balance customer acquisition cost (CAC) and lifetime value (LTV) for financial viability.(24:48) Differentiating inbound and outbound marketing strategies.(28:32) Applying the J-Curve to marketing investment because marketing investments often see an initial dip before reaching profitability.(41:07) Marketers should learn from failed campaigns instead of focusing on vanity metrics.Resources Mentioned:Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) website - https://www.ypo.org/ A100 website - https://thea100.org/The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen - https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Technologies-Management-Innovation/dp/1633691780Harvard Business Review – "Jobs to Be Done" Theory - https://hbr.org/2016/09/know-your-customers-jobs-to-be-doneGoogle Ads - https://ads.google.com/Looker Studio (Google Data Studio) - https://lookerstudio.google.com/HubSpot - https://www.hubspot.com/Freshdesk - https://freshdesk.com/ Productboard - https://www.productboard.com/ PipeDrive - https://www.pipedrive.com/Insightful Links:Know Your Customers' “Jobs to Be Done” - https://hbr.org/2016/09/know-your-customers-jobs-to-be-doneWhat Is Market Intelligence? - https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4697-market-intelligence.htmlHow to Calculate Unit Economics for Your Business - https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-calculate-unit-economics-for-your-businessThanks for listening to the “Marketing Leadership” podcast, brought to you by Listen Network. If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review to help get the word out about the show. And be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation.#PodcastMarketing #PerformanceMarketing #BrandMarketing #MarketingStrategy #MarketingIntelligence #GTM #B2BMarketing #D2CMarketing #PodcastAds

S2E16 of IMpulse: The Influencer Marketing Podcast

Send us a textWith free-tier offerings mask hidden costs and complex pricing structures, Pipedrive positions itself as a streamlined, value-driven alternative. Unlike HubSpot, which often surprises users with significant upcharges, or Zoho, which nudges customers toward bundled solutions, Pipedrive maintains transparent pricing with a strong focus on sales pipeline management. While many CRMs require costly external add-ons for essential features like CPQ, AI-driven workflows, and document integration, Pipedrive incorporates sales-focused automation, reporting, and integrations without excessive complexity. Its user-friendly interface, predictable cost structure, and built-in sales enablement tools make it a compelling choice for businesses seeking a scalable yet cost-effective CRM solution.In today's episode, we invited a panel of industry experts for a live discussion on LinkedIn to conduct an independent review of Pipedrive CRM's capabilities. We covered many grounds including where Pipedrive CRM might be a a fit in the enterprise architecture and where it might be overused. Finally, they analyze many data points to help understand the core strengths and weaknesses of Pipedrive CRM.Background Soundtrack: Away From You – Mauro SommFor more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs. rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform. 

Eric in Lewiston, Maine, asks how to use last year's data to create and accurate sales plans and evaluate software tools (like CRMs and ZoomInfo) to make those goals happen. Sales planning is vital—without a roadmap, you're just hoping your revenue targets magically come to life. If you haven't defined clear performance metrics—like call activity, lead generation, conversion rates, or daily prospecting targets—then you don't really have a plan. You have a wish list. Looking Back at Last Year: Which Metrics Matter? Eric wanted to know which metrics from the previous year he and his team should be analyzing to inform this year's targets. The short answer? All of them, if they are metrics that matter to your business goals. Consider: Conversion Rates from Inbound Leads Speed to Lead (How fast are you following up?) Outbound Touches vs. Opportunities in Pipeline Opportunities-to-Proposal Ratios Proposal-to-Closed Deals Ratios Upsells, Cross-Sells, and Expansion Deals By mapping out how each step in your funnel converts to the next—calls to first appointments, first appointments to proposals, proposals to closed deals—you can see exactly where to focus in the new sales year. Maybe you need more first appointments. Maybe you need to tighten up your proposals so more of them convert. Or maybe you're missing upsell opportunities with existing clients. Data points you to the gaps. Pro Tip: Once you understand your ratios, you can decide if you're aiming to improve them by, say, 25% (a stretch goal) or if you're reaching higher. However, be careful not to “fix” one area and inadvertently break another. Success in sales is about balance across the entire funnel. Choosing the Right CRM: Beware of Overkill Eric also mentioned his team's struggle with an outdated CRM that's not built for strong tracking. As they look ahead, they're weighing big guns like Salesforce. But here's the deal: Salesforce is an excellent platform—if you're a larger organization with the bandwidth, budget, and complexity to justify it. For smaller teams (like Eric's with just two salespeople), adopting a massive enterprise CRM can be overkill. Zoho, Pipedrive, Nimble, and HubSpot are great alternatives for small-to-midsize sales teams. They're user-friendly, more cost-effective, and far simpler to deploy. The rule of thumb? Choose a CRM that matches your current size and selling process. The last thing you want is to waste months configuring a powerhouse system that nobody uses because it's too big or too confusing. Making Sense of “Big Data” Tools Like ZoomInfo Eric's final question was about whether to invest in a data-intelligence tool (e.g., ZoomInfo, Apollo, LeadIQ) to identify new leads and tap into “intent data.” My take: ZoomInfo: This is what we use at Sales Gravy, and we love it. It delivers reliable data, helps us expand into new verticals, multi-thread inside target accounts, and dramatically speeds up our list building. Intent Data: Tools like ZoomInfo can show you who's actively looking for solutions like yours. While it's not perfect, it can be a game-changer for prioritizing outreach to the prospects most likely to buy. Beware the Shelfware Trap: If you invest in a high-end data platform, make sure you have a solid plan (and the discipline) to use it consistently. It's easy to drop serious money on software and then let it collect dust. Pro Tip: Start with a limited number of “power users” on your team who will commit to mastering the tool. Then expand usage as you integrate it into your sales workflow. How We Made It Work: A Cautionary Tale We've been using ZoomInfo for years. Early on, we blew through a lot of money because we didn't fully implement it. It wasn't until we got serious—trained our people, integrated it with our CRM, and held each other accountable—that we started seeing results. Today, ZoomInfo is essential to how we prospect, grow pipeline,

Räägime seekord Pipedrive avalikku pilve kolimise teekonnast. Juttu tuleb ka ette tulnud väljakutsetest ja üllatustest. Külas olid Pipedrive infrastruktuuri osakonna juht Kristjan Elias ja Infrastruktuuri arhitekt Vladimir Zulin.-----Rohkem infot:* AWS case study: https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/pipedrive-case-study/* Rackspace case study: https://www.rackspace.com/case-studies/pipedrive-aws* AWS User Group Estonia kohtumine, kus Kristjan rääkis üldisemalt samast teemast: https://www.youtube.com/live/b60JoyVC8t0?si=92jVMp4VW8ci-M7w&t=1504-----Jaga meile enda jaoks olulisimat mõtet episoodist meie Discord kanalis: https://discord.gg/8X5JTkDxccEpisoodi veavad Priit Liivak, Martin Kapp ja Tiit PaananenAlgorütmi toetavad Patchstack https://patchstack.comNortal https://nortal.com/Veriff https://www.veriff.com/

Jessica Tsur is the founder of CatchSupport.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing mental health resources and support for individuals struggling with anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges. Drawing from her personal journey with mental illness, Jessica has become a passionate advocate for mental health awareness and destigmatization.    She joined our podcast to share her powerful story of resilience, offering valuable insights into her battle with anxiety and depression, and how she turned her experience into a mission to help others.    Through her work, Jessica continues to inspire and empower individuals to seek the support they need and prioritize their mental well-being.   You can reach Jessica via her organizations website. https://catchsupport.org   To donate to Catch - you can zelle to info@catchsupport.org   Mail to CATCH SUPPORT INC 1443 Granada place Far Rockaway ny 11691   ______________________________________ Serenity Center   Looking for the right therapist for you? Reach out to the Serenity Center via their confidential WhatsApp line: https://wa.me/message/7U4AT74645R4J1   ______________________________________ Thank you to our sponsors:     ►Colel Chabad Pushka App   The easiest way to give Tzedaka download the Pushka app today      https://pushka.cc/meaningful     ______________________________________ ►Town Appliance   Visit https://www.townappliance.com   Message Town Appliance on WhatsApp:      https://api.whatsapp.com/send/?phone=17323645195&text&type=phone_number&app_absent=0   ________________________________   ►Toveedo   The Jewish videos your kids will love all in one happy place!  Stream unlimited videos on your phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, and smart TV.  From new releases, to your favorite classics, and exclusive originals, there's always something new to discover.   Use MM10 for 10% off   See our full library on    https://toveedo.com     ________________________________________   ► Skive     Customized Software Without The Custom Price Tag   Skive works with a variety of tools, including ClickUp, Monday.com, Smartsuite, Airtable, DocuSign, Pipedrive and more!   Visit-  https://skive.co     Book a call with Zalman here https://calendly.com/z     Reach out to Skive at info@skive.co     ________________________________________   ► Tribeworks Ignite    Announcing the 5th annual Tribeworks event, Wednesday, December 11th at the Hilton Staten Island.    Exhibitor registration is now open.   Use code MM for 50% off early bird tickets.   Register at https://tribeworksignite.com   To stay updated on the latest Tribeworks news, join our exclusive WhatsApp group:   https://chat.whatsapp.com/JitI6XfLoi1C8Twp1z0BQ2       ________________________________________ Subscribe to our Podcast    Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2WALuE2    Spotify: https://spoti.fi/39bNGnO    Or wherever Podcasts are available!   Editor: Sruly Saftlas

ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS: Start with “Why Did You Take the Call?”: Kick off by understanding the prospect's motivation. For inbound leads, ask directly, "What prompted you to reach out?" For outbound, ask, "What made you take this meeting with me?" This reveals their needs and priorities. Reserve Time for Next Steps: Set aside five minutes at the end to confirm logistics or plan a follow-up. If you need more time to dive into key topics, suggest scheduling another call. Demo Based on Pain Points: Order your demo around the most pressing pain points the prospect mentioned. Address their biggest challenges first to maintain their engagement and show value quickly. Recommend, Don't Upsell: Avoid pushing the premium package. Focus on the solution that best meets their needs to prevent overwhelming them and risking the deal. GARRETT'S PATH TO PRESIDENTS CLUB: Senior Account Executive @ Pipedrive Account Executive @ Pipedrive Junior Account Executive @ Pipedrive Lead Development Rep @ Pipedrive RESOURCES DISCUSSED: Join our weekly newsletter Things you can steal

In Episode 181 of The Business Development Podcast, Kelly Kennedy dives into the October 2024 community questions, sharing his insights on business development challenges. He answers questions on managing inbound leads, the use of CRM tools, and how to approach multiple leads from the same company. Kelly explains that while inbound leads can be valuable, they are often best managed by inside sales or operational teams, reserving business development for outbound growth strategies. He emphasizes using a CRM like Pipedrive exclusively for tracking, instead of complicating workflows with additional tools like Excel, to maintain a streamlined process. Kelly also discusses effective follow-up techniques, advocating for a kind, once-per-week follow-up approach to avoid coming across as pushy, and emphasizes the importance of calendar management to stay productive in a global outreach role. In the spirit of Halloween, he shares his love for the spooky season with a personal ghost story, adding a fun twist to the episode. Wrapping up, Kelly introduces his Business Development Mastery Program, aimed at helping listeners build successful business development processes for the coming year.Unleash Your Business's Full PotentialYour business is built for greatness, and I'm here to help you unlock that success. Through personalized, actionable strategies, we'll work together to drive the growth you deserve. Let's bring your vision to life and create a legacy of achievement that lasts. Ready to elevate your journey? Start today with Capital Business Development CoachingLinks referenced in this episode:www.capitalbd.ca

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interview Steve Oriola, CEO of Unbounce. Steve Oriola is a tenured CEO with over two decades of experience scaling dynamic B2B SaaS platforms, including Act!, Constant Contact, Pipedrive, and Julius. He recently led Unbounce through the acquisition of Insightly CRM, in which the two companies effectively merged. We discuss the findings of a recent benchmark report on CONVERSION RATES. That's right—we tried to get rid of email, but it looks like it has entered the chat again. Our conversation covers the importance of simplified copy, the enduring effectiveness of email marketing, the dynamics of mobile versus desktop conversions, and the rise of Instagram as a leading platform for conversions. We also cover the significance of writing at (if you can believe it) a lower grade level for better engagement, the nuances of industry-specific language, and the role of conversion-rate optimization in marketing strategies.

R' David Kalmus reflects on his personal journey navigating mental health struggles, including experiences with depression and anxiety.    Growing up in a secular environment, David encountered challenges such as bullying and a significant bout of depression during his time in sixth grade, which ultimately fueled his immersion in atheism.    David experienced a spiritual awakening that led him towards Judaism and the teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov.    Despite enduring intense depression and hospitalization, David eventually found solace through practices such as Hitbodedut and participation in the 12-step program. He emphasizes the importance of authenticity in communication and fostering a genuine connection with spirituality, offering insightful anecdotes and outlining his aspirations for a more inclusive Yeshiva initiative. [9/13/24, 5:00:04 PM] Nachi Gordon: R' David Kalmus reflects on his personal journey navigating mental health struggles, including experiences with depression and anxiety.    Growing up in a secular environment, David encountered challenges such as bullying and a significant bout of depression during his time in sixth grade, which ultimately fueled his immersion in atheism.    David experienced a spiritual awakening that led him towards Judaism and the teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov.    Despite enduring intense depression and hospitalization, David eventually found solace through practices such as Hitbodedut and participation in the 12-step program. He emphasizes the importance of authenticity in communication and fostering a genuine connection with spirituality, offering insightful anecdotes and outlining his aspirations for a more inclusive Yeshiva initiative.   This episode was brought to you in part by:     ►Skive     Customized Software Without The Custom Price Tag   Skive works with a variety of tools, including ClickUp, Monday.com, Smartsuite, Airtable, DocuSign, Pipedrive and more!   Visit-  https://skive.co     Book a call with Zalman here https://calendly.com/z...     Reach out to Skive at info@skive.co   ______________________________________   ►Colel Chabad Pushka App   The easiest way to give Tzedaka download the Pushka app today    https://pushka.cc/mean...   _________________________________     ►Toveedo     The Jewish videos your kids will love all in one happy place!      Stream unlimited videos on your phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, and smart TV.    From new releases, to your favorite classics, and exclusive originals, there's always something new to discover.   Use MM10 for 10% off     See our full library on https://toveedo.com   __________________________________________   ►Town Appliance   Visit townappliance.com    Message Town Appliance on WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/Townapp...   ____________________________________   ►ILS Title     Infinity Title: Titles without stories.     When your real estate transaction is protected through Infinity, you get meticulous coverage, clear communication, and zero drama—title after title after title.     Visit https://Ilstitle.com   ____________________________________ ►Ray of Hope   We are here to provide a Ray of Hope – warmth, support, and understanding for sexual abuse and trauma survivors and their families in the Jewish Community.   Donate: https://causematch.com/rayofhope     ——————————————————- ►Lema'an Achai   Send a FREE Lema'an Achai Rosh Hashana eCard! Now, more than ever, people need to feel connected.  It's easy, meaningful, free and unlimited!  Choose your cards today and schedule them to be sent now or just before Rosh Hashana.   https://www.lemaanachai.org/en/ecards.php?a=mm   ——————————————————   Subscribe to our Podcast      Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2WALuE2      Spotify: https://spoti.fi/39bNGnO      Or wherever Podcasts are available!     Editor: Sruly Saftlas

Get ready for a transformative episode of the Meaningful People podcast featuring the inspiring co-founders of Guard Your Eyes, Yakov Nadel and Yechezkel Steltzer.    Join us as we delve into their revolutionary website dedicated to supporting individuals in overcoming unhealthy online behaviors / addictions and steering clear of harmful online content.   With their innovative approach, Yakov and Yechezkel have already positively impacted tens of thousands of lives.    In this candid discussion, we explore the importance of online safety for people of all ages and the significant impact of digital temptations. This episode contains sensitive content, so we advise a trigger warning before tuning in.   This episode was brought to you in part by:     ►Skive     Customized Software Without The Custom Price Tag   Skive works with a variety of tools, including ClickUp, Monday.com, Smartsuite, Airtable, DocuSign, Pipedrive and more!     Book a call with Zalman here https://calendly.com/zalman-skive/30min     Reach out to Skive at info@skive.co     Join the Skive Exploring Software Tools What's App chat here      https://chat.whatsapp.com/D4L1UdOmanZFq7mOdPVmwx   ______________________________________   ►Colel Chabad Pushka App   The easiest way to give Tzedaka download the Pushka app today    https://pushka.cc/meaningful   _________________________________     ►Toveedo     The Jewish videos your kids will love all in one happy place!      Stream unlimited videos on your phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, and smart TV.      From new releases, to your favorite classics, and exclusive originals, there's always something new to discover.     Use MM10 for 10% off       See our full library on https://toveedo.com   __________________________________________   ►Town Appliance        Visit https://www.townappliance.com       Message Town Appliance on WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/Townappliance_whatsapp   __________________________________________________     ►ILS Title     Infinity Title: Titles without stories.     When your real estate transaction is protected through Infinity, you get meticulous coverage, clear communication, and zero drama—title after title after title.   Visit https://Ilstitle.com   _______________________________________________   Subscribe to our Podcast    Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2WALuE2    Spotify: https://spoti.fi/39bNGnO    Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/MPPGooglePodcasts    Or wherever Podcasts are available!         Editor: Sruly Saftlas

In this episode, we sit down with Chaim Cohen, who shares his powerful journey from a secular upbringing to embracing Orthodox Judaism. Chaim recounts his early life in a non-Jewish neighborhood in Sharon, Massachusetts, where football became an outlet for his anger and a shield against bullying. Despite his bar mitzvah, he felt disconnected from his Jewish identity, viewing it as a burden rather than a blessing.   Chaim's life took a dramatic turn when a seemingly ordinary football game triggered a deep reflection on his Jewish roots. His story is a testament to the transformative power of faith, as he describes the moment that propelled him to rediscover his heritage, don tefillin, and ultimately, dedicate his life to Torah study. This conversation delves into the struggles and triumphs of finding one's spiritual path and the impact of perseverance and commitment to personal growth.   Join Meaningful Minute + for exclusive content + more! https://chat.whatsapp.com/KWSjnaYDjUlDFpyyjPBpav     ►Skive   Customized Software Without The Custom Price Tag   Skive works with a variety of tools, including ClickUp, Monday.com, Smartsuite, Airtable, DocuSign, Pipedrive and more!   Book a call with Zalman here https://calendly.com/zalman-skive/30min   Reach out to Skive at info@skive.co   Join the Skive Exploring Software Tools What's App chat here    https://chat.whatsapp.com/D4L1UdOmanZFq7mOdPVmwx   ________________________________________   ►Colel Chabad Pushka App   The easiest way to give Tzedaka download the Pushka app today    https://pushka.cc/meaningful ___________________________________   ►Toveedo   The Jewish videos your kids will love all in one happy place!    Stream unlimited videos on your phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, and smart TV.    From new releases, to your favorite classics, and exclusive originals, there's always something new to discover.   Use MM10 for 10% off     See our full library on https://toveedo.com ____________________________________________   ►Nishmat, The Jeanie SchottensteinCenter for Advanced Torah Study   New Classes Start Srptember 8th!   For full class and registration, go to    https://2ly.link/1zLOz ____________________________________________________     ►Town Appliance    Visit https://www.townappliance.com   Message Town Appliance on WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/Townappliance_whatsapp ____________________________________________________   ►

Hala Taha became a successful CEO and founder at a young age by mastering LinkedIn and sales. She has driven significant growth for her $5M company using LinkedIn's networking features and Pipedrive's CRM capabilities. In this episode, Hala shares her top LinkedIn content strategies, DM tactics, and how to use Pipedrive to manage all your communications in one place. In this episode, Hala will discuss:  - Why LinkedIn is primed for sales - How people sell on LinkedIn - LinkedIn profile optimization for maximum visibility - Effective LinkedIn DM strategies - Pipedrive's new LinkedIn integration for streamlining sales  - Automation in Pipedrive CRM - How to create high-converting LinkedIn content - Interest relevancy on LinkedIn - Niche vs. broad content strategies - How to use polls to qualify leads - Best practices for including links in posts - Hot LinkedIn features for 2024 - And other topics… Try Pipedrive For FREE: Get Pipedrive free for 30 days, plus get 20% off your first year at youngandprofiting.co/pipedrive  LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass, Have Job Security For Life: Use code ‘podcast' for 30% off at yapmedia.io/course. Sponsored By:  Shopify - Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at youngandprofiting.co/shopify  Indeed - Get a $75 job credit at indeed.com/profiting  Facet - For a limited time Facet will waive $250 enrollment fee for new annual members! Visit facet.com/profiting for details. Kajabi - Get a free 30-day trial to start your business at Kajabi.com/PROFITING  LinkedIn Marketing Solutions - Get a $100 credit on your next campaign at linkedin.com/YAP   More About Young and Profiting Download Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com   Get Sponsorship Deals - youngandprofiting.com/sponsorships Leave a Review - ratethispodcast.com/yap Watch Videos - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting Follow Hala Taha LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ TikTok - tiktok.com/@yapwithhala Twitter - twitter.com/yapwithhala Learn more about YAP Media's Services - yapmedia.io/

David Allen has been described as a productivity expert who specializes in curing the psychic pain caused by the pressure of time. He introduced the world to his timeless Getting Things Done methodology in 2001 when he published a book of the same name. Thanks to his ground-breaking work, millions have discovered tools to accomplish more with less stress. In this episode, David breaks down the GTD framework and offers tips to help even the busiest people stay productive and engaged. David Allen is the creator of the Getting Things Done system and bestselling author of several books, including Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. He is recognized by Forbes as one of the top five executive coaches in the US and included in Business 2.0 magazine's 2006 list of the “50 Who Matter Now.” In this episode, Hala and David will discuss: - What stress-free productivity looks like - When stress is a good thing - The ‘external brain' stress-management tool - The five steps of his GTD system - Tips for avoiding distraction - His approach to organizing tasks  - Why priorities must drive action - How ‘open loops' drain your energy  - The two-minute rule for more efficiency - Tips to stop wasting time and draining energy - And other topics… David Allen is a leading expert on organizational and personal productivity. He is the creator of the Getting Things Done methodology and bestselling author of several books, including Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. He is recognized by Forbes as one of the top five executive coaches in the US and included in Business 2.0 magazine's 2006 list of the “50 Who Matter Now.” David Allen is the founder and chairman of the David Allen Company, providing seminars, coaching, educational resources, and practical products for individuals and organizations. He continues to write about coping with the fast-paced modern world, emphasizing balance, control, and meaningful focus.   Resources Mentioned: David's Website: https://gettingthingsdone.com/  David's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidallengtd/  David's Twitter: https://twitter.com/gtdguy  David's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dallen45/  David's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DavidAllen/  David's Books: Getting Things Done for Teens: Take Control of Your Life in a Distracting World: https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Teens-Distracting/dp  Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity: https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity-dp-0143126563/dp   LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass, Have Job Security For Life: Use code ‘podcast' for 30% off at yapmedia.io/course. Sponsored By:  Shopify - Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at youngandprofiting.co/shopify Justworks - Start your free month now at justworks.com/profiting Indeed - Get a $75 job credit at indeed.com/profiting Economist Education - Go to education.economist.com/PROFITING and enter my promo code PROFITING at registration to get 15% off any course from Economist Education. This offer ends on March 31st – don't wait! Airbnb - Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com/host Porkbun - Get your .bio domain and link in bio bundle for just $5 from Porkbun at porkbun.com/Profiting Pipedrive - Go to youngandprofiting.co/pipedrive and get 20% off Pipedrive for 1 year! More About Young and Profiting Download Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com   Get Sponsorship Deals - youngandprofiting.com/sponsorships Leave a Review - ratethispodcast.com/yap Watch Videos - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting Follow Hala Taha LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ TikTok - tiktok.com/@yapwithhala Twitter - twitter.com/yapwithhala Learn more about YAP Media Agency Services - yapmedia.io/

Always the health nerd, Dr. Will Cole was the weird kid who packed peppers, bananas, and whole grains for lunch. Passionate about optimizing health with nature's gifts, he decided to pursue formal training. He is now one of the top 50 functional medicine practitioners in the nation, helping people around the world restore their minds and bodies using natural methods. In this episode, Dr. Will presents natural solutions to health problems, recommends the best foods for improving gut health, and explains the connection between mental and physical health.  Dr. Will Cole is a leading functional medicine expert who consults people worldwide through his functional medicine telehealth center, one of the first in the world. He hosts the popular podcast, The Art of Being Well, and is the bestselling author of multiple books, including most recently, Gut Feelings.  In this episode, Hala and Will will discuss: - The difference between functional and traditional medicine - Bio-individuality as the key to optimal health - The connection between food and emotions - The impact of inflammation on mental health and mood - The evolutionary mismatch that puts humans at odds with modern life - The science behind the gut-brain connection - How the bacteria in our guts control us - Nutrient-dense foods for gut health - The impact of shame on health - Practicing self-compassion to lower inflammation - Steps to understanding your bio-individuality - And other topics… Dr. Will Cole started one of the first functional medicine telehealth centers in the world, enabling him to consult with people wherever they may be. He is a leading functional medicine expert specializing in digestive disorders, autoimmune conditions, thyroid issues, hormonal dysfunctions, and brain issues. He is the bestselling author of The New York Times bestseller Intuitive Fasting, and most recently, Gut Feelings. Dr. Will hosts the popular podcast The Art of Being Well and serves as actress Gwyneth Paltrow's diet advisor. Resources Mentioned: Will's Website: https://drwillcole.com/  Will's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drwillcole/  Will's Twitter: https://twitter.com/drwillcole  Will's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drwillcole/  Will's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doctorwillcole/  Will's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/drwillcole  Will's Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-being-well/id1539535133      LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass, Have Job Security For Life: Use code ‘podcast' for 30% off at yapmedia.io/course.     Sponsored By: Shopify - Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at youngandprofiting.co/shopify Justworks - Start your free month now at justworks.com/profiting Indeed - Get a $75 job credit at indeed.com/profiting Economist Education - Go to education.economist.com/PROFITING and enter my promo code PROFITING at registration to get 15% off any course from Economist Education. This offer ends on March 31st – don't wait! Airbnb - Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com/host Porkbun - Get your .bio domain and link in bio bundle for just $5 from Porkbun at porkbun.com/Profiting Pipedrive - Go to youngandprofiting.co/pipedrive and get 20% off Pipedrive for 1 year!     More About Young and Profiting Download Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com Get Sponsorship Deals - youngandprofiting.com/sponsorships Leave a Review - ratethispodcast.com/yap Watch Videos - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting   Follow Hala Taha LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ TikTok - tiktok.com/@yapwithhala Twitter - twitter.com/yapwithhala   Learn more about YAP Media Agency Services - yapmedia.io/

A true YouTube pioneer, Sean Cannell joined the platform only two years after its launch. Having built a YouTube empire worth $10 million, he helps entrepreneurs grow their influence and pursue their passion full-time through the power of online video. In today's episode, Sean offers invaluable insights on YouTube monetization and leveraging the platform for business. Sean Cannell is a business coach, international speaker, and YouTuber who has over 3 million subscribers across his channels. Featured in the "20 Must Watch YouTube Channels That Will Change Your Business” by Forbes, he helps entrepreneurs and creatives build their influence and income with online video through his seven-figure media company, Think Media.   In this episode, Hala and Sean will discuss: - The best way to monetize YouTube from day one - Diversifying YouTube income beyond ad revenue - How to supercharge your YouTube earnings - Lesser-known YouTube features for increased earnings - Strategies for integrating YouTube into your sales funnel - Organic lead generation with YouTube - The shortest path to big earnings with a small channel - Sean's formula for building sales funnels on YouTube - The two big ways to get discovered on YouTube - Ethical clickbait writing that works - The YouTube algorithm - And other topics…    Sean Cannell is a leading YouTuber, business coach, and CEO of Think Media, with over 3 million subscribers across his channels. Through his seven-figure media company, he helps entrepreneurs and creatives build their influence and income with online video. He has been featured in the "20 Must Watch YouTube Channels That Will Change Your Business” by Forbes. Also an international speaker, he has shared his expertise on YouTube, online business, and digital marketing at events like VidCon Anaheim, Social Media Marketing World, Marketing Impact Academy, and Grow With Video Live.    Resources Mentioned: Sean's Website: https://www.seancannell.com/  Sean's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seancannell/  Sean's Twitter: https://twitter.com/seancannell  Sean's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seancannell/  Sean's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWWFavn3ym0w3myTD5OX59g  Think Media's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/THiNKmediaTV  Sean's Free Class: https://courses.seancannell.com/youtube-1k-challenge-sign-up-march-2024  The Think Media Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-think-media-podcast/id1492533163      LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass, Have Job Security For Life: Use code ‘podcast' for 30% off at yapmedia.io/course.     Sponsored By: Shopify - Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at youngandprofiting.co/shopify Justworks - Start your free month now at justworks.com/profiting Indeed - Get a $75 job credit at indeed.com/profiting Economist Education - Go to education.economist.com/PROFITING and enter my promo code PROFITING at registration to get 15% off any course from Economist Education. This offer ends on March 31st – don't wait! Airbnb - Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com/host Porkbun - Get your .bio domain and link in bio bundle for just $5 from Porkbun at porkbun.com/Profiting Pipedrive - Go to youngandprofiting.co/pipedrive and get 20% off Pipedrive for 1 year!     More About Young and Profiting Download Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com Get Sponsorship Deals - youngandprofiting.com/sponsorships Leave a Review - ratethispodcast.com/yap Watch Videos - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting   Follow Hala Taha LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ TikTok - tiktok.com/@yapwithhala Twitter - twitter.com/yapwithhala   Learn more about YAP Media Agency Services - yapmedia.io/

Sean Cannell was the textbook troubled teenager, indulging in wild parties and substance abuse. But after getting expelled from high school, he decided to turn his life around. He immersed himself in volunteer work at a small church where he discovered video production and marketing. He has now built a seven-figure media empire, with 17 years of YouTube experience under his belt. In today's episode, Sean dives deep into YouTube, including the right way to get started and the future of the platform. Sean Cannell is a business coach, international speaker, and YouTuber who has over 3 million subscribers across his channels. Featured in the "20 Must Watch YouTube Channels That Will Change Your Business” by Forbes, he helps entrepreneurs and creatives build their influence and income with online video through his company, Think Media.   In this episode, Hala and Sean will discuss: - Why YouTube is miles ahead of other platforms  - Lead generation with YouTube - Nurturing hot leads with YouTube - Longevity on YouTube - Prospects for entrepreneurs starting on YouTube now - Growth potential for entrepreneurs on YouTube  - Considerations for starting a successful channel  - Why it's not too late to start in 2024 - YouTube as an investment for your business - Frameworks for picking the perfect name for your channel - And other topics…   Sean Cannell is a leading YouTuber, business coach, and CEO of Think Media, with over 3 million subscribers across his channels. He helps entrepreneurs and creatives build their influence and income with online video through his seven-figure media company. He has been featured in the "20 Must Watch YouTube Channels That Will Change Your Business” by Forbes. Also an international speaker, he has shared his expertise on YouTube, online business, and digital marketing at events like VidCon Anaheim, Social Media Marketing World, Marketing Impact Academy, and Grow With Video Live.  Resources Mentioned: Sean's Website: https://www.seancannell.com/  Sean's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seancannell/  Sean's Twitter: https://twitter.com/seancannell  Sean's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seancannell/  Sean's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWWFavn3ym0w3myTD5OX59g  Think Media's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/THiNKmediaTV  Sean's Book, YouTube Secrets: The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your Following and Making Money as a Video Influencer: https://www.amazon.com/YouTube-Secrets-Ultimate-Following-Influencer/dp/1544511817 Sean's Free Class: https://courses.seancannell.com/youtube-1k-challenge-sign-up-march-2024  The Think Media Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-think-media-podcast/id1492533163      LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass, Have Job Security For Life: Use code ‘podcast' for 30% off at yapmedia.io/course.     Sponsored By: Shopify - Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at youngandprofiting.co/shopify Justworks - Start your free month now at justworks.com/profiting Indeed - Get a $75 job credit at indeed.com/profiting Economist Education - Go to education.economist.com/PROFITING and enter my promo code PROFITING at registration to get 15% off any course from Economist Education. This offer ends on March 31st – don't wait! Airbnb - Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com/host Porkbun - Get your .bio domain and link in bio bundle for just $5 from Porkbun at porkbun.com/Profiting Pipedrive - Go to youngandprofiting.co/pipedrive and get 20% off Pipedrive for 1 year!   More About Young and Profiting Download Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com Get Sponsorship Deals - youngandprofiting.com/sponsorships Leave a Review - ratethispodcast.com/yap Watch Videos - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting   Follow Hala Taha LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ TikTok - tiktok.com/@yapwithhala Twitter - twitter.com/yapwithhala   Learn more about YAP Media Agency Services - yapmedia.io/