Podcasts about Wix

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL LEARN: 03:24 - What Okta does and how it became a multi-billion dollar business.05:14 - Why Frederic chose to stick with Okta after starting the company and helping it grow to over 5,000 employees.11:01 - How Okta was able to bounce back from missing their sales targets by 70% back in 2011.17:30 - Ways in which Okta is able to compete with the big tech behemoths.19:28 - Frederic's three rules to live by.26:01 - Frederic's blueprint for selecting the right partner to do business with.32:54 - When founders should start considering taking in outside capital.40:38 - How Frederic helps Okta tune out the stock price to focus on the business.And much, much more!*Disclaimer: Slight timestamp discrepancies may occur due to podcast platform differences.EPISODE RESOURCESCheck out Frederic's new book, Zero to IPO.Robert and Clay's tool for picking stock winners and managing our portfolios: TIP Finance.Related episode: MI146: Building a Business From Scratch & Budgeting Insights w/ Jesse Mecham.Related episode: MI119: Biggest Lessons of Entrepreneurship w/ Jason Saltzman.Get a FREE audiobook from Audible.Check out our Investing Starter Packs about business and finance.Support our free podcast by supporting our sponsors. Find Pros & Fair Pricing for Any Home Project for Free with Angi.Take your business online with Wix, the leading website creation platform that's got all the tools you need to create, manage and grow your brand. Find joy in comfort with Faherty. Use promo code WSB to snag 20% off all your new spring staples!Enjoy a simple, good tasting supplement that truly improves your health with Field of Greens! Get 15% off your first order and get another 10% off when you subscribe for recurring order with the promo code MILLENNIAL.Check out Titan if you want to aim to become the smartest, wealthiest investor you've ever been. Get $50 when you invest today.Tell mom how much you love her—and make sure she hears it in crystal-clear audio quality, with Raycon.Design is already in your hands with Canva. Start designing for free today.The interval fund, a breakthrough innovation. Only at Mackenzie.Balancing opportunity and risk? The golden answer can be literally gold! Start your investment journey today with Perth Mint.Get insights on how to plan for your financial goals with The Globe and Mail. Listeners get a special digital subscription rate for unrestricted access to everything. Read this episode's transcript and full show notes on our website.Connect with Frederic: Book | LinkedIn | TwitterConnect with Clay: Twitter See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly podcasts and posts to be encouraged. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel #GTKYB #BillyLambert #Bible #study #summerdale #churchofchrist #Jesus #NewTestament #church #encouragement #podcast

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly podcasts and posts to be encouraged. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel #GTKYB #BillyLambert #Bible #study #summerdale #churchofchrist #Jesus #NewTestament #church #encouragement #podcast

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly podcasts and posts to be encouraged. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel #GTKYB #BillyLambert #Bible #study #summerdale #churchofchrist #Jesus #NewTestament #church #encouragement #podcast

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly podcasts and posts to be encouraged. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel #GTKYB #BillyLambert #Bible #study #summerdale #churchofchrist #Jesus #NewTestament #church #encouragement #podcast

IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN:01:17 - Why you may need a financial advisor as a millennial.01:17 - The value financial advisors add.17:33 - Why robo-advisors won't take over the financial advising industry.22:49 - The most important thing keeping you from reaching your financial goals.36:45 - Whether you should pay off your student loans or invest.And much, much more!EPISODE RESOURCES:Robert and Clay's tool for picking stock winners and managing our portfolios: TIP Finance.Douglas Boneparth's book, The Millennial Money Fix.Get a FREE audiobook from Audible.All of Robert's favorite books.Find Pros & Fair Pricing for Any Home Project for Free with Angi.Getting dressed takes no effort at all with Mack Weldon's Daily Wear System! Check it out for yourself and save 20% on your first order.Loansteady is here to find a mortgage that works for you, not the other way around. They are waiving all lender fees for listeners of Millennial Investing. Important terms and conditions apply. Loansteady LLC, All rights reserved, NMLS# 1701910, Equal Housing Lender. For more licensing information, please visit https://www.loansteady.com/licenses-and-legalTake your business online with Wix, the leading website creation platform that's got all the tools you need to create, manage and grow your brand. Invest in crypto and trade it without tax headaches with AltoIRA.Check out Titan if you want to aim to become the smartest, wealthiest investor you've ever been. Get $50 when you invest today.Enjoy a simple, good tasting supplement that truly improves your health with Field of Greens! Get 15% off your first order and get another 10% off when you subscribe for recurring order with the promo code MILLENNIAL.The interval fund, a breakthrough innovation. Only at Mackenzie.Balancing opportunity and risk? The golden answer can be literally gold! Start your investment journey today with Perth Mint.Design is already in your hands with Canva. Start designing for free today.Get insights on how to plan for your financial goals with The Globe and Mail. Listeners get a special digital subscription rate for unrestricted access to everything.Read this episode's transcript and full show notes on our website.Connect with Douglas: Website | Twitter | LinkedIn Connect with Robert: Website | Instagram | TwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Common Mistakes Dentists Make in Marketing Episode #422 with Grace Rizza Marketers are not magicians. They can't turn $50 into 1,000 loyal patients. But what they can do is help you focus and strategize to attract new patients and increase loyalty. And today, Kirk Behrendt brings in Grace Rizza, CEO of Identity Dental Marketing, to share some of the biggest mistakes made in dental marketing that you need to know and avoid. Don't try marketing on your own! To learn how to get the most out of your time and money, listen to Episode 422 of The Best Practices Show! Main Takeaways: You will always be spending on marketing. Being cheap will cost you more in the long run. Start ASAP and get ahead of the curve. Don't try to do everything on your own. Always vet your advisors and ask questions. Quotes: “You can actually shape how people think of you. You can shape what they think of you with effective custom branding.” (3:47—3:55) “[Dentists] don't always realize that [marketing] is its own area of study, that people actually study marketing. Someone made a joke to me the other day. A client said, ‘It's like I need a second degree in this!' And I said, ‘You do, if you're going to try to do it on your own! I do have a degree in this. And there are several certifications that you should get if you're going to be running campaigns and things of this nature.' And they just hadn't really thought about it, that while they were studying dentistry, that other people are studying marketing. So, I think it starts with knowing or accepting the fact that you don't know it and being open to learning from other people's mistakes.” (5:15—6:00) “You shouldn't do it all on your own. When it comes to marketing, you're likely going to waste a lot of time and money with the more technical side of things. Like, launching an optimized ad campaign is probably not the highest and best use of your time. As soon as you figure it out, it's going to change. And you're probably going to realize that it's not ideal for you to do that. But ramping up the number of reviews in your practice, getting your patients to refer to you, having those internal systems that increase your new patient numbers, most definitely, you want systems for those kinds of things. But with the marketing that should be outsourced, it's the more technical side. It's the ads, the SEO, setting audiences, managing budgets.” (7:20—8:06) “One of my biggest problems right now in business, in general, is that you've got hundreds of thousands in debt in dental school. You've got, now, a buildout and the fanciest equipment and the most beautiful office, because these are all things — I'm going to be really offensive right now — that feed the ego. These are all things that make you feel special. Like, did you really need the most expensive dental chair when you don't have anyone that's going to sit in it because you have zero marketing budget? So, I have these conversations all day long. By the time they think about marketing, there's no money left. So, my question is always, ‘Well, what do you have to lose if you don't have marketing? All of that previous investment is now at risk, because without patients, you have no cashflow. You have nowhere to go.'” (11:56—12:50) “My advice would be, start asking these questions sooner. Ask, ‘Okay, what does it take to acquire a new patient in my market with this method?' And then, reverse-engineer what it's going to cost to make those methods work for you. Instead of saying, ‘I have $500. What can you do with it?' ask, ‘What's it going to cost to get 20, 50, 80 new patients a month?' And then, figure out how you can make it happen.” (13:45—14:13) “Template or builders for websites [are one of the biggest marketing mistakes]. So, when marketing companies use drag-and-drop builders — this can be Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, GoDaddy Builder, Elementor; there's a million — it's not ideal for SEO. So, a lot of times, we'll have people say, ‘Well, can...

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL LEARN: 04:30 - Why MJ chose entrepreneurship as his preferred path to building wealth.09:52 - MJ's journey to building his first successful business.18:14 - How he knew it was time to sell out of his business. 22:19 - Why following your passion in starting a business is bad advice.26:03 - What MJ's definition of wealth is.40:14 Ways in which entrepreneurs can validate their business ideas.And much, much more!*Disclaimer: Slight timestamp discrepancies may occur due to podcast platform differences.EPISODE RESOURCESCheck out MJ's book, The Millionaire Fastlane.Check out MJ's book, Unscripted.Check out MJ's book, The Great Rat Race Escape.Read MJ's Fastlane Forum.Robert and Clay's tool for picking stock winners and managing our portfolios: TIP Finance.Related episode: MI069: Practical Strategies For Starting A Business W/ Steve Hoffman.Related episode: MI071: How To Become A Successful Entrepreneur w/ Sean Castrina.Get a FREE audiobook from Audible.Check out our Investing Starter Packs about business and finance.Support our free podcast by supporting our sponsors. Find Pros & Fair Pricing for Any Home Project for Free with Angi.Getting dressed takes no effort at all with Mack Weldon's Daily Wear System! Check it out for yourself and save 20% on your first order.Loansteady is here to find a mortgage that works for you, not the other way around. They are waiving all lender fees for listeners of Millennial Investing. Important terms and conditions apply. Loansteady LLC, All rights reserved, NMLS# 1701910, Equal Housing Lender. For more licensing information, please visit https://www.loansteady.com/licenses-and-legalTake your business online with Wix, the leading website creation platform that's got all the tools you need to create, manage and grow your brand. Invest in crypto and trade it without tax headaches with AltoIRA.Check out Titan if you want to aim to become the smartest, wealthiest investor you've ever been. Get $50 when you invest today.Enjoy a simple, good tasting supplement that truly improves your health with Field of Greens! Get 15% off your first order and get another 10% off when you subscribe for recurring order with the promo code MILLENNIAL.The interval fund, a breakthrough innovation. Only at Mackenzie.Balancing opportunity and risk? The golden answer can be literally gold! Start your investment journey today with Perth Mint.Design is already in your hands with Canva. Start designing for free today.Get insights on how to plan for your financial goals with The Globe and Mail. Listeners get a special digital subscription rate for unrestricted access to everything. Read this episode's transcript and full show notes on our website.Connect with MJ: Books | LinkedIn | YouTube Connect with Clay: TwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

Live on Location in Seattle at Paul McCartney's Got Back tour:  Phoebe and Daphne share their joyous experience at this May 2022 show and have a lively discussion about the performance by Paul, Rusty, Brian, Wix and Abe. *MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL LEARN: 03:35 - What stocks and companies Berkshire purchased in the first quarter of 2022.16:55 - Why speculation in the stock market helps Warren and Charlie find good deals to purchase in the market.26:40 - Warren and Charlie's thoughts on trying to time the market.31:15 - How Buffett suggests protecting yourself against inflation.49:40 - Why Buffett won't purchase any Bitcoin.54:30 - Why doing the work you love leads to a fulfilling life.And much, much more!*Disclaimer: Slight timestamp discrepancies may occur due to podcast platform differences.EPISODE RESOURCESApply to TIP's new job opening as a financial newsletter writer.Related episode: TIP446: Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder's Meeting 2022 w/ Stig Brodersen & Trey Lockerbie.Mentioned episode: MI128: Why Buy Bitcoin w/ Andy Edstrom.Mentioned episode: MI164: What is Money? w/ Jim Crider.Get a FREE audiobook from Audible.Check out our Investing Starter Packs about business and finance.Support our free podcast by supporting our sponsors. Find Pros & Fair Pricing for Any Home Project for Free with Angi.Getting dressed takes no effort at all with Mack Weldon's Daily Wear System! Check it out for yourself and save 20% on your first order.Loansteady is here to find a mortgage that works for you, not the other way around. They are waiving all lender fees for listeners of Millennial Investing. Important terms and conditions apply. Loansteady LLC, All rights reserved, NMLS# 1701910, Equal Housing Lender. For more licensing information, please visit https://www.loansteady.com/licenses-and-legalTake your business online with Wix, the leading website creation platform that's got all the tools you need to create, manage and grow your brand. Invest in crypto and trade it without tax headaches with AltoIRA.Check out Titan if you want to aim to become the smartest, wealthiest investor you've ever been. Get $50 when you invest today.Enjoy a simple, good tasting supplement that truly improves your health with Field of Greens! Get 15% off your first order and get another 10% off when you subscribe for recurring order with the promo code MILLENNIAL.The interval fund, a breakthrough innovation. Only at Mackenzie.Balancing opportunity and risk? The golden answer can be literally gold! Start your investment journey today with Perth Mint.Design is already in your hands with Canva. Start designing for free today.Get insights on how to plan for your financial goals with The Globe and Mail. Listeners get a special digital subscription rate for unrestricted access to everything. Read this episode's transcript and full show notes on our website.Connect with Robert: Website | Instagram | TwitterConnect with Clay: Twitter See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Having a website for your business can be very important. We aren't saying every business needs a website, but most will.So how do you go about getting a website made for you? Should you make it yourself?These questions are answered by going through the list below. Once you have gone through all of this you will be in the right position to either get one made for you, or do it yourself.Its VERY important to not call a website company or start building one yourself until you listen to this podcast and answer the below questions / understand the below statements.Understand that websites are complicated.Getting a website up and running can go from EASY to HARD very fast. There are things like DNS Records, and Site Security and Privacy and setting up your email to go under your domain.Take some time to research the basics of the anatomy of a website. You can do this by looking through training videos on places like Wix or Shopify, watching Youtube videos or even taking an online course.Why do you need a website?Your answer should be very clear. Examples might be:To show I am a legitimate businessTo have customers order onlineTo communicate what i offerAs a sales tool to share linksTo be found onlineTo have a place to send online adsIt's very important to know WHY and the more "WHYs" you have, the more expensive the siteIs there anything interesting or special your website will do?If it's just to "show words and pictures" that is the simplest site. But is there anything else?Customers can order products onlineCustomer can upload art filesConnect to your accounting or CRM softwareBe able to create mini-stores for your customersWhat do you want it to look like?The easiest solution for this to start searching for sites you like and note themAlso consider keywords and feelings you want the site to have:ModernFreshProfessionalFeminineMasculineUrbanCountryPatrioticReligiousetcWhat pages do you want?HomeContactAbout UsFAQsTestimonialsUse other websites to make a "wish board" of the look and feel of your website.Consider a platform you want it to be onDo you want an e-comm store? Search those platforms and create a short list. Get demos.Do you want very heavy custom coding and complexity?Do you want the most economical and be able to DIY?Platforms you might choose may be:WordpressWixGoDaddyDrupalShopifyBigCommerceSquareSpaceOpenCartStart Shopping for the costGet price quotesWhat does the CMS cost?What are 1 time set up costs?How will you get art / graphics?Who will write the website? How much to have someone write the content for you?Any 'hidden' fees or add-onsWhat are the other costs involved?Site Security -SSLMaintenance / updatesDomainCustom emailAlternate domainsHostingBack ups of the siteOnce you have gone through this exercise you should know a few things:Do you still want to build a website now?Have your plans or ideas changed?Do you want to DIY or pay someone?Knowing all of this will help your website project be a great experience at a fair price.

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL LEARN: 02:10 - New laws significantly limiting Airbnbs in Atlanta.04:33 - If a new approach to STRs is needed due to the new laws.07:21 - How to diversify an STR portfolio.11:11 - How to get started with STRs.13:19 - How to manage your time as a W2 employee and investor.20:57 - Why W2 jobs can actually benefit you as an investor.22:43 - Which rules to have in place.24:29 - Which STR platforms to use.29:31 - How to insure your STRs.And much, much more!*Disclaimer: Slight timestamp discrepancies may occur due to podcast platform differences.EPISODE RESOURCESRelated episode: REI103: The Truth About Airbnb Investing w/ Travis Zappia.Related episode: REI088: Airbnb & Short-Term Rentals w/ Tony Robinson.A new newsletter all about house hacking.Learn about TIP's Investing Starter Packs on real estate.Short-Term Rental, Long-Term Wealth book.Gary Keller's book The Millionaire Real Estate Investor.All of Robert's favorite books.Support our free podcast by supporting our sponsors.Find Pros & Fair Pricing for Any Home Project for Free with Angi.Getting dressed takes no effort at all with Mack Weldon's Daily Wear System! Check it out for yourself and save 20% on your first order.Loansteady is here to find a mortgage that works for you, not the other way around. They are waiving all lender fees for listeners of Millennial Investing. Important terms and conditions apply. Loansteady LLC, All rights reserved, NMLS# 1701910, Equal Housing Lender. For more licensing information, please visit https://www.loansteady.com/licenses-and-legalTake your business online with Wix, the leading website creation platform that's got all the tools you need to create, manage and grow your brand. Invest in crypto and trade it without tax headaches with AltoIRA.Check out Titan if you want to aim to become the smartest, wealthiest investor you've ever been. Get $50 when you invest today.Enjoy a simple, good tasting supplement that truly improves your health with Field of Greens! Get 15% off your first order and get another 10% off when you subscribe for recurring order with the promo code MILLENNIAL.The interval fund, a breakthrough innovation. Only at Mackenzie.Balancing opportunity and risk? The golden answer can be literally gold! Start your investment journey today with Perth Mint.Design is already in your hands with Canva. Start designing for free today.Get insights on how to plan for your financial goals with The Globe and Mail. Listeners get a special digital subscription rate for unrestricted access to everything.Connect with Robert (@therobertleonard): Website | Instagram | TwitterConnect with Travis: Instagram | AirbnbSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A blog is a quick and ebay way to start marketing an existing business OR start making money while you decide exactly what your business is going to be.  In terms of building authority, establishing and strengthening relationships, and providing a platform through which to sell, blogging is extremely cost effective. That said, one of the biggest questions people have is, “How much is it going to cost me to start a money making blog?” Can I start a blog for free? Let's first start with what they're really asking, which is, “Do I really have to pay to start a blog?”  Well, no… but yes. There are options for starting a blog for free. WordPress.com is a free blogging platform, Wix and Weebly have similar options, or you can take advantage of sites like Medium to publish. There are a few reasons I don't recommend this path.  Your URL will give you away. Free blogging sites include the name of the platform in the web address, which gives your blog an unprofessional feel. When I see myblogname.wordpress.com, I automatically (subconsciously) discount the information I receive and decide not to buy from them. If they're not willing to invest in themselves, why should I invest? There are limited monetization paths. While blogging offers multiple opportunities to make money, when you use a free blogging platform, many aren't available to you. And the ones you can use are more complicated to get up and running. It's a pain in the patoot to switch. Some people think about starting on a free platform and switching to a paid version at a later date. First, let's be honest. Later rarely comes. Especially when you set benchmarks like, “I'll switch when I'm making money.” We've already established that it's harder to make money on the free platforms, and the longer you go without making anything, the less effort and attention you're likely to give your blog. Which means… you'll never make money.  Additionally, switching your blog platform is not an easy task. You're basically starting from scratch on a new system, but you also have to move all your old content over to the news site. It's a lot of work, and oftentimes it just doesn't get done, even if you hit that “when I do X” benchmark. You can pay someone to do this for you, but it's expensive. What do I have to pay for? In my opinion there are 2 essential investments you need to make in your new blog if you intend to use it as a money making vehicle. These 2 systems will allow you to start making money faster and build your know, like, and trust factor with your audience. Domain & Hosting When you pay for your domain and hosting, you fully own your website. Your URL will be simply yourblogname.com, which is much more professional (and trust inspiring), and paying for hosting is like paying rent on your little corner of the internet. It becomes your space to use as you see fit, with no interference from outsiders. Note: There are terms of service for your website and what it can be used for, but those typically prohibit things like running a website like Alex Jones or instructing people on illegal activities. There are a number of hosting companies available, and you're welcome to do your research. The company I use and recommend is SiteGround. Siteground currently charges $17.99 a year for domain registration. While you can find domains (literally) a few dollars cheaper, it's worth having your domain and hosting with the same company for the sake of convenience. When SiteGround upgrades their service or platform, they automatically take care of any back end changes needed for my domain to remain functional without any extra work from me. Hosting through Siteground is typically $14.99 a month. However, because they know that people starting out don't have any money coming in yet, they have a significant discount for your first year of service. When you pay for your first year up front, your rate drops to only $3.99 a month. This makes your initial investment only $48. All together, using SiteGround, your initial investment is $66 for your first year. Email Service Provider The other essential service you need to invest in as soon as possible is email. When it comes to growing your blog readership, nothing is as powerful as email.  When you start putting out content you should have a way to collect and manage email addresses, and email your list whenever you publish a new post. While you don't need to get your email set up the moment you purchase your domain and hosting - it's going to take time to get your site set up -  you should have it ready to go as soon as your blog is live. As with web hosts, there are numerous email service providers (ESPs) to choose from. The email service provider I use and recommend is ConvertKit. There are 3 tiers of service they offer: Free, Creator, and Creator Pro.  I strongly suggest that you invest in the Creator plan. When you pay for the year it's only $9 a month ($15 if pay month-to-month) and it provides you the ability to build automations, which are key for a stress-free business. Automations are what allow you to send a series of messages out automatically when someone signs up for your list. If you go with ConvertKit, the cost for your first year would be $108 (or $180 if you pay monthly). What other expenses are there? There's literally no limit to what you could spend money on when you start a blog. You can pay for programs, tools, and even people to execute tasks for you.  Of course, one of the biggest benefits of blogging is that it's inexpensive to get started, so we don't want to go all in on every shiny new tool that comes across our feeds. Here are 3 things I recommend for new bloggers, but aren't required from the start. A Premium Theme When using WordPress (.org) there are thousands of free themes to choose from, and generally any will do when starting out. Eventually you may decide to switch to a premium theme - I use and recommend the Divi theme from Elegant Themes - for more customization options and premium features.  Switching to a new theme can be a big undertaking (though not as big as moving to a totally new program), so if you'd rather just start with a premium theme, they're typically reasonably priced. Divi is just $89 a year ($249 for a lifetime license). Social Media Scheduler The more of a social presence you have, the harder you have to work to maintain it. Schedulers can take a load off your shoulders and make this task easier. Since you're not allowed to be scrolling your feed and replying to comments all day, schedulers allow you to assign prewritten posts to be published at a certain time. A great beginner scheduling program is CinchShare. At only $100 a year, it's a very affordable option. A Trusted Step-by-Step Program Getting a blog up and running has many steps, and some of them can be overwhelming. While there are lots of sources of information on starting a blog on the internet, not all of them are reliable, and many are even contradictory.  Additionally, the time it takes to sift through all the information available is time that your blog is not published and making money. In many cases this time and frustration lead many would-be bloggers to quit, leaving your potential unmet, and your readers without your guidance. Teacher Blog Academy was created specifically to guide teachers through the process of building, growing, and making money through a blog. You could spend hundreds of hours searching for reliable information and how-to instructions with video tutorials, but who has time for that?  At $497, Teacher Blog Academy saves time, frustration, money (on stuff that doesn't work), and gets you making money faster… and pays for itself over and over (and over). In the end, starting a blog doesn't have to be an expensive undertaking.  We're so blessed to live in a time and place where making money is soooooo accessible. Thank you, internet!  You can sell basically anything from anywhere - including your own knowledge - without a massive investment in equipment, inventory, and staff. You just need the will to do it, a little bit of start up money, and a trusted guide.

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

In this episode we chat with Hila Fish, Senior DevOps Engineer at Wix, about Devops culture and role. Questions covered include:What drew you into DevOps / how did you pick that specific path?What does a DevOps role look like? What problems are you solving, how are you solving them? What types of tools / technologies / processes are most helpful for someone in a devops role similar to yours? What's Devops culture like? Where would you like to see improvements? Looking ahead: what are you excited about, focused on learning or achieving in the next few months? Hila Fish is a Senior DevOps Engineer @ Wix. She believes the DevOps culture is what drives a company to perform at its best and carries the vision of enhancing and stabilizing the business by taking care of its infrastructure. In her spare time, Hila is a lead singer of a cover band, giving back to the community by co-organizing DevOps-related events (Inc. "DevOpsDays TLV" & "StatsCraft IL Monitoring Conference"), mentoring in courses and communities such as “Baot” (Women in tech engineering Israeli community) and others, and shares her passion and knowledge whenever possible. Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hila-fishTwitter: https://twitter.com/Hilafish1

You can dream about changing your country to the better, influence it and volunteer in it. OR you can make the decision to do it. That's what Lead to Succeed guest Batsheva Moshe decided to do.Batsheva is the GM of Wix in Israel, the leading cloud-based website creation and development platform with 220 million users worldwide. She also serves as Chairman of Yozmot Atid - a leading NGO that empowers women from underserved communities to establish small businesses and to become economically independent. Prior, Batsheva managed Poalim HiTech – the banking arm of Bank Hapoalim for startups and high-tech companies. Batsheva was also CEO of Unistream, one of Israel's most influential and impactful NGOs that narrows the socio-economic gaps by empowering youth and young adults from underprivileged communities to establish startups and integrate into the Hitech industry.Listen in and learn more about the mindset that entrepreneurs must have.

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

Is it time to pick another niche for your digital agency? There are tons of benefits of niching down. However, there are a lot of concerns about making big changes and focusing on a specific industry. The good news is there are ways to test out a new niche instead of going all-in. Alano Vasquez is the founder and CEO of Cyberwhyze, an agency that helps cyber security companies become brands that scale. Although he found success and even more room for opportunity in this space, he has had other failed attempts at niching down and understands it can be scary to choose a new market and fail. However remember, failures are just lessons to help you move closer to success! In this episode, we'll discuss: Failures that become lessons learned when niching down. Testing out a new niche, rather than going all-in right away. Having the right team in place to give your freedom in your agency. Sponsors and Resources Wix: Today's episode is sponsored by the Wix Partner Program. Being a Wix Partner is ideal for freelancers and digital agencies that design and develop websites for their clients. Check out Wix.com/Partners to learn more and become a member of the community for free. Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio | Stitcher | Radio FM First Steps and Lessons Learned When Niching Down Alano was working in sales at a tech startup right out of college. He was laid off, unfortunately, but when another startup hired him, he soon realized they had no marketing. He decided to use what he had learned and focused on becoming a full-staff marketer. After learning the tech industry and creating his own agency, Alano started working by with any client in the B2B space. He worked with education, healthcare, and fintech companies trying to offer as many services as he could. Within 3 or 4 years, the agency hit a ceiling of about $1.5 million in revenue. In trying to work out a solution, Alano noticed a lot of density with the agency's cyber security clients. However, at the time he actually decided they would focus on the tradeshow space. It seemed like the right choice at that moment. Unfortunately, this happened right before the 2020 pandemic and the end of all in-person events for quite a while. They had spent time and resources on experiential and interactive marketing when everything went virtual because of Covid. How to Identify a New Niche for Your Agency After his first failed attempt, Alano and his team went back to the basics and turned to the opportunity in the security space he had noticed before. They focused on branding and content creation for cyber security companies. Before you pick a niche you pretty much start working with everyone so you can start to see what you like and do really well. You can see where you have success and start weeding out the things that you don't like or do well. To his surprise, Alano quickly realized this new market presented a big runway of opportunities and was dealing. His agency Cyberwhyze started working with big brands sooner than he thought. He has rushed to create the capabilities in order to keep up with what the clients wanted from his agency. Now sees a possibility to double down on this niche. You Can Test Out a New Niche Instead of Going All In In hindsight, his agency would have niched down much sooner had he followed the advice he now gives to his clients. Some of his clients have a few verticals and try to put out a lot of broad-stroke marketing, trying to make it a one-size-fits-all. He finds clients tend to do this to avoid going through the process of creating an entire website for each vertical. Instead, Alano suggests creating a funnel with positioning that speaks to each specific persona. Agencies can also apply this same principle. There's no need to build an entire website for a new niche, just build a funnel, test it out on LinkedIn and run some Google ads. It serves as insurance to make sure you're not going down the wrong path and it might help you feel more at ease when you eventually decide to go all-in. The Value of The Cheat Sheet as a Lead Magnet Coming from sales, Alano and his partner knew very early on they did not want to give away strategy for free. They found a way to productize strategy and sell it as a core component of their work. A good way to attract new clients to your strategy is a cheat sheet. CMOs love them and even bigger brands use them. Cheat sheets come in many forms and you can use them as an opportunity to offer something really valuable while capturing data to continue marketing to your prospects. Cyberwhyze offers a cheat sheet paired with a video webinar that explains how companies can use it to their advantage. This has helped them build trust and led many people to their website. Even some big brands have contacted him based on their cheat sheet, so the agency didn't have to jump through hoops to get their attention. It's all about realizing there's really no reason to offer strategy for free and later feeling remorse for it. Having The Right Team to Provide You Freedom in Your Agency Agency growth is also about continuing to refine strategy and making sure the right people are in the right seats. Agency owners are normally the think tank of the business and the ones coming up with all the client strategies. This could be because it is expensive to replace yourself in that role early on. In fact, most agencies don't seek to do this until they hit the $5 million mark. For Alano, you have two options when it comes to replacing yourself in the strategy role: Do it anyway and maybe offer a profit share if you feel you can't quite afford it yet. Keep trying to do all the strategy but become a bottleneck for your own business. For Alano, it made sense to do this early on, even before hitting $1 million. It was the best decision for his agency. His clients have come to really like the person he hired for this role. The benefit for Alano is peace of mind and freedom. He is able  to take a vacation and only work until 5 PM knowing the agency is taken care of by his head of strategy. The idea of replacing yourself might be uncomfortable. However, the sooner you can replace yourself as the head of strategy the better if you're going after bigger projects. Remember, you probably started this business to eventually have more freedom. This resistance could also stem from the fact that they don't know the steps they need to take to make sure that this new hire will work. Agency owners are usually visionaries and many struggle with execution or hiring for execution. You need clarity of where you're going and who you're going after from the beginning. This way, your team will feel empowered to make decisions without you. Once you have this, you can hire the right person to replace you. Staying True to Your Why as Your Agency Grows Alano had to figure out his agency's growth before getting to this point. He went back to the basics to figure out his individual why and his agency's why. But don't forget, figuring out your why should be followed by communicating it to your team and revisiting it from time to time to keep everything cohesive. In this new stage, he is thinking beyond bootstrapping. He will now look at acquisitions, as he continues to explore his niche market. Want the Support of Amazing Digital Agency Owners? If you want to be around amazing agency owners that can see you may not be able to see and help you grow your agency, go to the Digital Agency Elite to learn all about our exclusive mastermind.

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

Blogging has democratized the internet. Anyone can launch a blog, write words, and publish them in a highly accessible manner. You don't need to be a foodie, interior designer, Pinterest Queen, wedding planner, or stay-at-home mom to start a blog. Starting a blog is one of the fastest ways to acquire digital marketing skills that are transferable in your career. Blogging has helped many of today's leading entrepreneurs first learn how to design for WordPress, write compelling copy, understand SEO principles, embrace analytics, and hire and manage freelancers. Choosing a blog platform can become a stressful process. There are a few that are affordable and user-friendly. Wix is primarily used as a website builder, but can also be utilized to start a blog. A medium is a great tool for building a blog – albeit hosted on a third-party platform. Choosing a blog host is a big step in the process of starting a blog. There are dozens of hosts to choose from, but we've highlighted three top options. Choose the right one and you'll enjoy a smooth blog with a good user experience and peace of mind. With a blog platform, host, and domain name, you're ready to begin designing your blog. The key to successful blog design is to keep things simple. You need rich, high-quality content that propels your blog to the top of your industry or niche. If you're starting a blog, here are some tips to generate traffic and establish prominence. The first step is to write high-quality content that pleases the search engines. Your first year is probably going to be slow on the traffic front. More info about how to start a blog – an SEO guide for starting & growing a blog:    https://seo.co/how-to-start-a-blog/   Connect with us:  SEO // PPC // DEV // WEBSITE DESIGN

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click hereto find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click here to find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

Our podcast host and conversation-starter, Maia Morgan Wells, gets into B2C SaaS marketing with Asaf Rothem, CMO of Seeking Alpha. Formerly at companies like Wix and BrightInfo, Asaf is now leading a team of 40 in the competitive investing scene, with eyes on the all-important KPI of company ARR. Find out how Asaf helps his team to hit their goals without burning out on this episode of The Marketing Hero podcast by ClearPivot.

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click hereto find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click hereto find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

Terrence Thames is the CEO of Advanced Media Production Firm, LLC dba Cocoa Creative Agency. Terrence Thames is a man of faith, husband, father, and entrepreneur. Terrence has a passion for seeing others succeed in business and in life – especially people of color. Having grown up on the South Side of Chicago, Terrence was raised by his college-aged cousin in Iowa City at the age of 9 where he was exposed to a better life and more opportunities. At that time, Terrence became heavily involved in church, video production, journalism, and music. Working professionally since the age of 17, Terrence launched his own creative agency in 2011 – Advanced Media Production Firm, LLC dba Cocoa Creative Agency. Terrence is currently focused on family, faith, and wealth-building among minorities and their communities.   Here's what we covered on the episode: Terrence's Young Start to Video Editing  How I'm currently in a business accelerator at Drake University in Des Moines, IA, for a new business I was to start, and how Terrence is a business advisor within the program, which is how we met  Terrence shares that he learned to edit videos at the age of 12 from a family friend and then started volunteering to edit videos for their church program at the time  When Terrence got older, he started doing more creative editing using Premiere and Final Cut, which really made things take off for him  After high school, Terrence started working at the University of Iowa in the athletics video department, where he was able to combine his love for sports, video production, and design  There are many approaches to production, but Terrence's approach to editing has been taking standard video production from live events, cutting them up on a computer on a timeline, and then putting together a narrative with music to help convey a message     Terrence got to practice his skills through sporting events at the University of Iowa and even helped on some TV sports shows for coaches  When Terrence was volunteering for his church, their TV program was on the local public access station, where people could make anything for any purpose, so Terrence grew up around people who were creating art and things for community programs  You can use video editing and production to create so many different things, and we see more and more people get into editing or content creation because of the accessibility we have through social media and our phones  How a lot of people may not know they are editors even though they are engaging with content all the time and changing it into something else  Terrence explains that many games were covered by ABC, ESPN, or Fox Sports, but if someone didn't show up to work, they would call the person for video production for the school and ask if they had any students to do different tasks for them, like running a camera so Terrence would take many of those opportunities Terrence says its a really special thing when you're able to combine your passions as he has with sports and editing video production  By freelancing and taking those opportunities, Terrence was able to build his resume with many bigger brands early on through proximity, and because he lived in a smaller town, he was able to get to anyone, which opened up even more opportunities    Creating His Business + Getting Experience  In his heart, Terrence always knew he wanted to have a business, but he says he really wanted to have something on paper for tax purposes, so he was thinking about names and came up with Advanced Media Production Firm           Before making his business an LLC, he had it as a sole proprietorship with his local county and was working full-time while doing his business on the side  How Terrence moved to Des Moines and 2010 and in 2011 had his business filed as an LLC, which is when the business officially started - he didn't have a business plan or very many clients but knew that if he was going to be freelancing or doing work for people he wanted to have it separated on paper as an entity When building his brand, Terrence says it was a lot of manifestation, God opening up opportunities and using his personal experiences with brands as part of his business portfolio Terrence made a website early on, and people started to call - sometimes, the small projects were for big brands, which he leveraged  Growing up, Terrence's church did fundraisers by working concessions at the University of Iowa games - during the 4th quarter, they shut down the concessions, and Terrence was able to watch the last quarter of the football games on the jumbotron - he told himself one day he was going to work for that video board team   The family friend that taught Terrence how to edit videos also did freelance camera on the sidelines for the University of Iowa, and so when Terrence got older, he asked her who she used to work for, but she only remembered the person's first name Terrence made a resume right out of high school and started calling the athletics department of Iowa University asking for this person until he finally got connected with them - he wanted the opportunity to work for them as a student even though he was going to community college  They agreed Terrence would be hired on as a miscellaneous professional - they taught him how to use their special cameras and had him come in a few hours a week to edit and film the Iowa women's basketball team, which he did part-time while going to community college  Eventually, in 2012, Terrence started working at Drake University, where one of the things he oversaw was video production for athletics; in that position, he was looking for students to help with production, which gave them a lot of experience  Terrence says there is always an opportunity if you look for one to get experience  Content creation and editing were Terrence's specialty, but he says he was always big on visuals and led with visuals by using video or photography as a primary part of the layout for design How Terrence was able to easily navigate templates which helped him when he started doing more motion graphic design   In your professional space, Terrence says, there is a certain time where video production is key, there's a certain time with graphic design and layout is key, and then there's a time to integrate all those things    Understanding Your Business to Build a Team + Price Model How being a creative helped but only got Terrence so far; when he started doing more work, he didn't have time to do everything - to grow, he needed to hire people who were better than him in certain spaces  Terrence shares that he loves to work on teams that do well and lift each other up As an agency, they lead with video production; virtual productions, virtual events, live events, and filming other things with a narrative for storytelling  Secondarily, the agency does social media marketing campaigns, web development, and brand strategy    When Terrence first started, he was charging $500 for an early Wix website, $100 for graphic design because he had another job to rely on at the time, so he wasn't charging in a way that would let him grow his business  Terrence has an office downtown, they have clients locally, regionally, and a couple nationally - his pricing model is better but could be improved because he realized they were charging under 150% in some areas compared to their counterparts  Now, if they do a small virtual event, they are charging a minimum of $3,500 - Terrence shares that the price is similar for a smaller hybrid or in-person event    Video production rates for onsite productions can range anywhere from a half-day, around $1,400+ if it's a virtual production for a conference they are producing, it would be a minimum of $11,000 and could get up to $40,000 - $80,000 depending on all the elements going into it  For bigger projects, if some of the client elements reach beyond the agency's capacity, Terrence says they partner with people who can help bring something alive for a client  Terrence explains that they try to hover around $125 - $175 / hr, and if it's a long-term project, they do an assessment to determine what the pricing will be based on the number of hours estimated to go into the work   How the agency now has 7 - 8 full-time and part-time staff who are W-2 employees and 4 - 5 freelance that work for them regularly   A main theme for the agency Terrence says has been building out infrastructure, putting in standard operating procedures, and then doing the things that make them an actual viable business as opposed to ‘Terrence and the freelancers' - they offer benefits because people have needs and concerns  How you need to keep reassessing your business to make sure everything is working in all areas - you have to think about your growth and what you should start, stop and continue  There are a lot of creatives out there who don't think about what they need to do to become profitable, bring on investors or partners, or even sell their business - Terrence says you need to have an open mind and make sure you're handling your pricing model correctly  A lot is going on in the creative space right now, there are a lot more people exercising their entrepreneurial mindset, and while Terrence thinks it's important to be around other creatives, he says you need to make sure you understand the business side first  If you have an idea of how you want to grow your creative business, Terrence believes you have to go after what's in your heart - there's no one way to do anything; you can learn along the way Making sure your business is in order first is important because you don't want to be a struggling creative; you want to be flourishing and adding value to areas that you see you can solve a problem in as a creative Terrence encourages people to expand their minds about how the business works, ask a lot of questions and be unafraid to live in your purpose  Connect with Terrence on Instagram or LinkedIn Links mentioned:   Advanced Media Production Firm, LLC dba Cocoa Creative Agency   Connect with Terrence on Instagram    Connect with Terrence on LinkedIn   Like what you heard?  Click here to subscribe + leave a review on iTunes. Click here to download my Sales Page Trello Board Let's connect on Instagram!

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click hereto find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click hereto find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

Michael Benezra is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the GK Fund: a nonprofit social impact fund to support BIPOC-owned companies in Greater Boston. Michael also serves as the COO of Colette Phillips Communications, helping to lead the All Inclusive Boston (https://www.bostonusa.com/allinclusivebos/) tourism campaign, among other projects. Chad talks with Michael about being a BIPOC ally, disparities amongst the VC world, and how the GK Fund looks for the same things in BIPOC-owned companies that they look for in other companies because the innovation is there; it's just that the opportunity isn't. The GK Fund (https://www.thegkfund.org/) Follow The GK Fund on Twitter (https://twitter.com/GK_Fund) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/thegkfund/). Colette Phillips Communications (https://www.cpcglobal.com/) All Inclusive Boston (https://www.bostonusa.com/allinclusivebos/) Black Owned Bos. (https://www.blackownedbos.com/) Follow Michael on Twitter (https://twitter.com/MichaelBenezra) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelbenezra/). Follow thoughtbot on Twitter (https://twitter.com/thoughtbot) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/). Become a Sponsor (https://thoughtbot.com/sponsorship) of Giant Robots! Transcript: CHAD: This is the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast, where we explore the design, development, and business of great products. I'm your host, Chad Pytel, and with me today is Michael Benezra, Executive Director and Co-founder of the GK Fund, a non-profit social impact fund to support BIPOC-owned companies in Greater Boston. Michael is also the COO of Colette Phillips Communications, helping to lead the All Inclusive Boston Tourism Campaign, among other projects. Michael, thank you for joining me. MICHAEL: Thanks for having me. CHAD: I'm curious about the GK Fund. When did you start the Fund? MICHAEL: So, at the time, I was working for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, and I was working with venture capital firms, private equity firms. And I was representing over 200 Israeli companies in New England, most of them startups. And my wife is Black; my family is Black. I've been close to that community for a long time. And especially in the venture capital world, I started to see some real disparities amongst other disparities in general everyday life, but it was particularly bad in the VC world. And so Colette being a mentor and a friend of mine, Colette Phillips, I approached her, and I said, "Hey, what do you think about starting this fund, this non-profit fund?" And her and Andre Porter, who is our other co-founder who used to be the head of the state's business development agency in Massachusetts, we all decided to band together and start this non-profit. Now, we started the non-profit in December of 2019, so the pandemic hit right as we were creating this organization. And we had a decision to make, do we put this on hold, or do we move forward and accelerate? And we decided to just move forward. CHAD: Well, I'm glad you did. I'm glad you made that decision. Hopefully, you feel the same way. [laughs] MICHAEL: Yeah, I do. CHAD: You're absolutely right. There's a big need here. And I actually have had over the last two months or so a few different guests that are creating VC funds or funds of certain kind that address underrepresented communities, Black, another one was veterans. And there's such a big need. How did you decide what you were going to focus on or focus down into so, for example, focusing on Boston? MICHAEL: For Boston specifically, it had to do mostly with proximity. So I went to Harvard here for grad school. I worked for Governor Patrick. And so, for me, it was natural to stay local, especially during COVID. In my experience, there were a lot of BIPOC, particularly Black-owned startups, that were on paper akin to a lot of other startups in the Israeli world, which were very developed or also in the United States. I'll give you an example; there was a company that I worked with that had a $100 million valuation but had no products, no physical products. They had no revenue, but they had innovation. Now, you and I being very honest, do you think a Black-owned company could get away with that? CHAD: Yeah, no. MICHAEL: There is no way. I knew that; the other entrepreneurs that I've talked to know that. That is a terrible double standard that needs to be fixed. So we look for the same things in BIPOC companies that we look for in other companies because, for the most part, the innovation is there; it's just that the opportunity isn't. CHAD: Yeah. To dig into that a little bit more, I think one might say, well, if they had a founding team that had a proven track record, then maybe. And that's where you get to the fact that it's systemic, too, because if the headwinds are there where they can never get that experience, to begin with, they never get that opportunity, to begin with, then they're not going to have a founding team that has a track record that will be invested in based on just the team. MICHAEL: That is 100% accurate, but it's actually even worse. So we do not ask our founders in the application process for their educational background. But all six of the companies that got grants from us last November they all have their bachelor's, four out of six have masters or higher. And so the cream definitely rose to the top. We had a store owner she owns an online boutique who got an engineering degree from Purdue. And we also have an entrepreneur who was an attorney at State Street, a corporate attorney, and now he's created this startup. And so, in some cases, like in most other areas, these individuals are overqualified. CHAD: So, what is the funding model for GK on both sides of the equation? Where is the money coming from, and then how are you funding the companies? MICHAEL: So we raise money organically like any other non-profit does. So we apply for grants. We take corporate donations. We take individual contributions online. Most of our money so far has come in through corporate contributions. So PNC Bank has been with us since the beginning. They made a very large commitment to supporting racial equity, and they've really stuck to it. The Bar Foundation has been exceptional. And then we've also had a group of individual donors who were actually White women who have started their own non-profit now, and they've also banded together to give us money that we need to re-grant to the companies. We have over 100,000 from the State of Massachusetts to operate a grant program. So money is coming through a number of different avenues. We've issued six micro-grants so far at $10,000 each. We did that in November. We plan to do ten more in the next month. I said in the Boston Business Journal article you can give us money, but you can't park it with us like you could with a donor-advised fund and watch it accumulate interest for 15 years. We're going to take it, and we're going to give it to the people that need it the most. CHAD: And are they grants then? You're using the word grants, so I assume that they are. So you're not doing this in exchange for equity in the companies? MICHAEL: No, no equity in the companies, no convertible notes, just a straight capital grant directly to the company. So I send a message over to our fiscal sponsors at Philanthropy Massachusetts. They send the check directly over to the company. After that, we have the company fill out a survey letting us know what they plan to use it for, but we're not overly prescriptive. And that's actually the way that philanthropy is heading right now is, putting fewer restrictions and barriers in the way. And that's another thing I'll talk about as well is making it easier for companies to gain access. CHAD: So, did you ever consider more of a traditional VC fund model with this? MICHAEL: Yeah, originally, I did. Before the pandemic, actually, I did. So the original purpose or impetus of the fund was to take companies that were coming out of accelerator programs that were underfunded. You have some great accelerators, but you have companies leaving with a business plan and $2,000. In some cases, there are companies that have been through three accelerator programs. They're not getting as much out of it as they should. I wanted us to intervene, find the companies that have the most potential, and make investments. But after COVID hit, it was a crisis. And so, we needed to shift our focus to philanthropy. CHAD: The nice thing about that is then you can do those grants with basically no strings attached for the companies. Whereas if you were taking money from people who expect to get a return on that investment, you wouldn't be able to do that. MICHAEL: That's exactly right. There are organizations out there that say that they're making an impact when in reality they're just making, you know, loans which is not a not a bad thing. But they're issuing loans, or they're taking equity in the companies, that's fine, but it's not what we're doing. CHAD: What are your plans for, like, upcoming? Are you going to be continuing with micro-grants, or do you have bigger plans? MICHAEL: We have bigger plans. So I can't say too much right now because we have an announcement coming up. But I will say issues like legal services have come up. There's a constant need for attorneys for any company, whether it's contracts, or locking down real estate, or copyright and trademark, or IP. We are working with a very large prestigious law firm that's really making a generous commitment to our companies. And this would involve us even adding free legal services for an entire year to our grantees. So that's one thing that we're planning to do. And then the other is, and this another function of the fund, is we speak with organizations like Lyft who's donated like $5,000 in ride credits that we're giving to our grantees or Wix, which has given us like 75% off of websites. We work with partners who can also give us other services that we can provide to these companies to try to get them closer to where there's a gap. Giving them capital is not enough. The disparities are too significant. We also partnered with Berkshire Bank, so I can make direct referrals for loans if they need them. But the idea is to really narrow that gap and give these companies the same opportunities that their White counterparts have. CHAD: That's great. So you, as someone who's White doing this work, how do you find yourself in the community? How do you be an effective ally and advocate? MICHAEL: For me personally, my connection personally through my wife and also through my family and my boss. Colette is a pioneer. She's a Black woman in Boston who moved here not knowing anybody. And 30 years later, she's on The Power of 50 and 100 influential lists, but she did that through hard work. And she's worked much harder, I think, than she would have had to if she weren't a woman from Antigua who came here on her own. But ultimately, as an ally, it's my role; it's our role to step in between situations where there's inequity. So if there is a company, one of our companies, for instance, who's having a problem locking down real estate, (I think I use this in the article.), and they're saying, "Well, the real estate agent is telling us they can eliminate our lease at any time they prefer which I know is basically legal." I'll call them up and say, "Look, I'm with the fund. We're backing this company; we support them. What's the situation?" And unfortunately, most of the time, the outcome actually changes. So it's a matter of almost you got to be proactive, and you got to be intentional. You have to use your privilege in the best way that you can. So I think that's how you do it. And then, when it's time to shed a light on these companies, you take a step back, so it's not my role to go out there and promote myself. If anyone asks me, I'm always promoting the companies. So the best thing we can do is be advocates. You can be out front, but at the end of the day, it's about uplifting them, these companies in this case. CHAD: Yeah, that's great. Speaking of that, I was going to ask you, what are some of the companies that you have given the micro-grants to, and do you know how they use them? MICHAEL: Yeah, so we gave our grants to six companies. One is called MustWatch, and MustWatch is founded by Che, and Che, his family, is from Haiti. They are an app. You can actually find them on the App Store. But what they do is they allow you to log in, select which movies and television shows that you watch, and share them with your friends. And it sounds like a very simple concept, but there is actually nothing on the market that allows you to do this. And the idea is that you're collecting data while you're doing this as MustWatch. So at the end of the day, if you have a sample of like 20,000 users on the platform, you gain a lot of valuable insight and data. And that data can be useful for Nielsen or the television networks or movie production studios. I encourage people to sign up for MustWatch because if you spend as much time as I do looking for good movies, you're probably miserable. CHAD: [laughs] MICHAEL: [laughs] I spend so much time doing that. We also have a few online retailers. So we have B. Royal Boutique and So Zen Spa, both of them have doubled their revenue during COVID. They originally had stores. They pivoted during COVID, went online, and really were excellent when it comes to branding and marketing on social media and on other digital platforms. So they've been very successful. We have a company called Black Owned Bos., which is pretty well known here in Boston. They basically focus on organizing and running pop-up shops. And Jae'da, who's the head of the company, is just, I mean, she's a business mastermind. She's brilliant, always finding new ways to innovate. And then we have Our Village, which is focused on community development and housing. And finally, sySTEMic flow, which is a company that helps school districts, educators support Black women in STEM and STEAM fields. So we looked for companies that could pivot, basically. CHAD: And you mean in the face of the pandemic. MICHAEL: In the face of the pandemic, we looked for companies that had success and had a plan and also knew their audience. The main things that we look for…and I should say this too; our application process takes an average of seven minutes. And the way that I did that was I evaluated over 20 accelerator applications. I did a comparative analysis and identified the questions that were either irrelevant or unhelpful for us. And that gave us a very short application for our companies but one that's really efficient. And basically, what we're looking for is companies that have a good business model, have a very specific customer base and target market, and have a strong founder, and also has been undersupported. There are companies that we've identified for our next cohort that by this point in their development would have been venture funded in my experience, at least, had they not been people of color. Mid-Roll Ad I wanted to tell you all about something I've been working on quietly for the past year or so, and that's AgencyU. AgencyU is a membership-based program where I work one-on-one with a small group of agency founders and leaders toward their business goals. We do one-on-one coaching sessions and also monthly group meetings. We start with goal setting, advice, and problem-solving based on my experiences over the last 18 years of running thoughtbot. As we progress as a group, we all get to know each other more. And many of the AgencyU members are now working on client projects together and even referring work to each other. Whether you're struggling to grow an agency, taking it to the next level and having growing pains, or a solo founder who just needs someone to talk to, in my 18 years of leading and growing thoughtbot, I've seen and learned from a lot of different situations, and I'd be happy to work with you. Learn more and sign up today at thoughtbot.com/agencyu. That's A-G-E-N-C-Y, the letter U. CHAD: What has been the most surprising use of one of the grants? MICHAEL: So B. Royal used the grant money to lock down a store in Assembly Square in Somerville. We kind of anticipated they might do that. So Zen Spa they improved their website. MustWatch actually really surprised us. So they went out and got a valuation of their company and then basically worked with a crowdfunding platform called Netcapital to raise more capital. They had a very specific plan, and they had disclosed that plan to us. I just didn't anticipate they would act so quickly on it. And based on the fact that we had given them a grant and all this mentoring and support, their valuation actually went up. CHAD: That's a really smart use of the funds to propel that into a larger fundraise. That's really smart. MICHAEL: I agree. CHAD: So you do this in addition to a day job. [laughs] MICHAEL: I mean, they're both day jobs; it's just, yeah. CHAD: So you mentioned Colette Phillips, the person, [laughs] how about Colette Phillips Communications? So The All Inclusive Campaign it really is historic. The genesis of the campaign is that back in 2020, Colette and I applied for an RFP from the City of Boston; it was for a tourism recovery campaign. All of the major cities in the country got this grant money through regional tourism agencies, you know, like they're a special interest niche. And they went to the Feds, and they're like, "Look, we're suffering, travel is suffering, we need a grant," so all these grants went out. The City of Boston actually said, "Look, we want to focus on diverse tourism." So that was perfect for us. We applied, we got the grant. And we brought on Proverb, which is an incredible digital marketing agency and creative design agency, and the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau. It was the largest contract ever to go to a minority-owned company by the City of Boston, ever, and it was about 1.5 million. CHAD: Which in and of itself for what the City of Boston probably spends on things [laughs] is a little ridiculous that that's the biggest one, but … get beyond that, I guess. MICHAEL: It's insane. It's very upsetting. And it was a long time overdue. In this case, that contract or that RFP was really only supposed to last like one quarter. So all these regional tourism agencies they get their influx of money, a million dollars or a few 100,000. And then from there, they do the campaign, they move on. We are now three mayor's into this. We are four million dollars into this. We submitted the campaign to the city 60 days after they contracted with us; 84% of the contractors on the project are minority-owned companies. And in that 60 days before delivering the campaign, we actually never met in person. So we did this whole campaign virtually from the start. We came in under budget. We came in ahead of time. This is what happens sometimes when you let minority-owned companies take the lead. CHAD: Yeah, that's great. How do you do a campaign like this? I mean, this is why they came to you, the experts, but I think it's important that this message seem authentic and not pandering. MICHAEL: Yeah, Colette is a visionary. She's been talking about diversity and inclusion for like 20 years. There's an article that came out, I think, in 1992 where she was talking about the importance of diversity in the business community. And now it's like microfilm; you can't even find it digitally online. CHAD: [laughs] MICHAEL: She's years ahead of her time. And she's constantly innovating, and All Inclusive was her idea, and she branded it. I think it was a long time coming, basically. This is a culmination of a message and campaign that she's been running her whole life. CHAD: Yeah, I think that that's very powerful. And I think it comes across in the campaign. It seems authentic. I think it would be easy for it to not seem that way. And so yeah, it comes from that place of this was already a thing. It was already brewing. It wasn't just -- MICHAEL: Do you want to hear a story? CHAD: Yeah, I'd love it. MICHAEL: So, most of the media coverage for this campaign was exceptionally positive. There are a few reasons for that. We included all small, locally-owned businesses in the campaign. So you won't find celebrities, no athletes, or anything like that; we may do that later. We also invested...we took 200,000 of the contract, which this was not even supposed to be in there. We actually did ad buys with 19 different local newspapers. In some cases, these newspapers would have actually closed down if we had not done that, and that was just a byproduct of something we felt was important. But amidst all of that, she got invited to do an interview on Bloomberg on the local Bloomberg station. She's on the phone, and some guy who was on the other line, and I won't go into it too much, said, "You know, as a White man, I'm really offended. I don't feel represented in this campaign." [laughs] And she's like, "I've had enough of this," hangs up the phone. [laughs] And this is another part of allyship I think is...naturally, you know, I said, "Look, I'm taking care of this." I wrote a letter to Bloomberg. I said, "This is unacceptable. You need to take him to task." I don't know if he still works there anymore. But that's kind of the role. You have a Black woman who's a pioneer. She just released a campaign. The first thing you should be saying to her is "Congratulations," instead of saying that, all you can tell her is about how being a White man is like, I don't know, a disadvantage? Which is crazy. There are tons of White people in the campaign. I'm White; I'm in the campaign. CHAD: It's so foolish. I don't even want to have to explain it, but the campaign is literally called All Inclusive. MICHAEL: [laughs] Exactly, exactly. It covers everybody, I mean, literally. And it's like, I don't know what you want from us. CHAD: Yeah. And it's not even...like you go to the site it talks about here's what you can do with families. Here's what you can do with kids, kid-friendly activities. MICHAEL: This campaign was also research-based. So we spent 100,000 on research with this incredible company called Heart + Mind. They did a lot of research, and they did a lot of surveying. And the words that came back when describing Boston were unwelcoming, masculine; I think Tom Brady, Ben Affleck, crime, you know, just this kind of machismo unwelcoming environment. And it kind of confirmed some of the assumptions we had, but it was really surprising to see it in the data. So we said, "All right, this is what we're working with. We have to come up with a narrative that counters that because Boston is a majority-minority city, 23 neighborhoods, 60% of the population speaks two languages or more. That ethos is really not accurate. So hopefully, we're doing a good job. CHAD: So if folks want to help, we already said GK Fund is a non-profit. It's coming up to tax season [laughs], so at the very least, even if you don't...hopefully, you care about the cause, but if you just want that tax write-off, I suppose that's another reason to donate. MICHAEL: Absolutely. CHAD: So where can folks do that if they want to learn more and donate? MICHAEL: Visit www.thegkfund.org. CHAD: And are you looking for help in other ways beyond monetary? How can people get involved? MICHAEL: Absolutely. So we're looking for mentors so individuals who feel like they have experience or skills to lend to these companies, and we'll try to deploy these individuals in the best way possible. Obviously, we're looking for partnerships. So if you have a company that you feel has something to contribute or is willing to make a contribution, not monetarily but either with your products or with a discount, we also want to give that benefit to the companies as well. And there are a number of different ways. CHAD: That's great. And if folks want to follow along with you or get in touch directly with you, how can they do that? MICHAEL: You can feel free to follow me on Twitter. It's just @MichaelBenezra, all one word on Twitter. I got a lot of positive messages after the Boston Business Journal article came out and in LinkedIn as well. CHAD: Great. And you can subscribe to the show and find notes and a full transcript for this episode at giantrobots.fm. If you have questions or comments, email us at hosts@giantrobots.fm. You can find me on Twitter @cpytel. This podcast is brought to you by thoughtbot and produced and edited by Mandy Moore. Michael, thanks so much for joining me. I really appreciate it. MICHAEL: Yeah, thank you for having me. CHAD: And thank you for listening. See you next time. ANNOUNCER: This podcast was brought to you by thoughtbot. thoughtbot is your expert design and development partner. Let's make your product and team a success. Special Guest: Michael Benezra.

We welcome you to today's broadcast which concludes a series entitled: “Be Committed.” Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click hereto find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

We welcome you to today's broadcast. Billy Lambert will be sharing insight from God's word. This broadcast is part of a nationally televised series sponsored by the churches of Christ. Please sign up for our FREE Bible correspondence course and check out our YouTube channel to see all the latest shows. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. Have you watched Getting To Know Your Bible? Please check us out on Dish Network or Direct TV. Click hereto find out where you can watch in your area. Our goal is to encourage you to get to know your Bible. #TelevisionMinistry #spreadthegospel Getting To Know Your Bible blogs are available on Spaces by WIX, the GTKYB social media pages, and on our website. Follow along with Billy's weekly posts and be encouraged. #billylambert #encouragement

Katie Welch is a creative thinker and brand storyteller with more than 20 years of marketing experience. At Rare Beauty, Katie works to bring Selena Gomez's mission and vision for Rare Beauty and the Rare Impact Fund to life. An innovative thought leader, she has continually pushed the envelope while working with globally respected beauty brands, including Hourglass, Bliss, Elemis, Burt's Bees and Unilever. Katie has appeared on AMC's The Pitch, WABC, WNBC, WIX and QVC. She has been quoted in Allure, WWD, Vogue Business, Glossy and more. In this episode, Katie speaks with Caroline Homlish about how her personal relationships influenced her career path, and mentoring early career professionals interested in working in the beauty industry or marketing.

Do you know how good branding establishes your agency as an authority? As a result, you will grow your agency faster. The fact is, being relatable and establishing yourself as a trusted advisor to prospective clients gains their willingness to let you help them solve their challenges and achieve their goals. Our guest today shares how branding helps establish authority and how she turned her agency from a side hustle to a full-time priority. Annie Scranton had worked at several media companies when she founded her own PR agency, Pace Public Relations, focused on getting their clients media attention and placement to highlight their work. After losing her job as a producer at CNBC, Annie sent an email to her network and got an answer asking if she could help get media for a client. It came natural to her. She got that person an interview and knew this was the path for her future career helping actors, CEOs, and authors get access to media. In this episode, we'll discuss: Turning a side hustle into a full-time opportunity. Branding yourself vs. branding your agency. The importance of a solid pitch. Sponsors and Resources Wix: Today's episode is sponsored by the Wix Partner Program. Being a Wix Partner is ideal for freelancers and digital agencies that design and develop websites for their clients. Check out Wix.com/Partners to learn more and become a member of the community for free. Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio | Stitcher | Radio FM Turning an Agency From a Side Job to Full-Time Priority Annie's PR venture began as a side job that wasn't really her number one priority at the time. After years of working in several media outlets, she knew many influential producers and reporters. This was her currency to take the business off the ground and allowed her to offer clients access to the media. Nevertheless, she admits she undercharged for many years, a common issue for startups. This may have slowed her growth a bit, but eventually, Annie's pricing model evolved to monthly retainers. She finally made the decision to focusing on her business full-time once she had enough of a safety net to take the risk. Twelve years later, her monthly retainers are now up to 10K and she has offices around the world. First Steps to Growing an Agency Annie was lucky to have a big network of people answering her questions about the first steps she needed to take with her business. Since PR is a service industry, she didn't have to manufacture a product or answer to investors. Once she made the decision to fully focus on building her agency, she hired a web designer to put together a website, opened a corporate email, and was ready to start growing her business. She quickly learned the importance of hiring a good accountant, since she hadn't realized how much money she need to put away for taxes. It was a rough reality check. As soon as she couldn't handle the amount of work on her own, she started looking for her first employee. She started by delegating the low-level admin work to dedicate more time to getting new business. For this, she decided it would be best to hire and train someone who already had a background in media. Ultimately, overcoming the anxieties that come with being responsible for payroll was one of the best decisions she could make for her business. The Difference Between Marketing Yourself vs Building Your Brand Annie is a big believer in the power of building your own brand. In the debate between branding yourself or branding your agency, she thinks we should all do both. However, it is also a matter of your needs and your particular industry. For her business in PR, it really is all about the image she presents of herself as someone that can get you access to the media. Therefore, her branding is about 75% focused on her. Your prospective clients want to work with you and your team, not your "company". People want to work with people that are relatable and that share their values. It can be aspirational in a way. You want to follow their journey, career path, and success. Remember that this is why it is so important to brand yourself. It attracts people in a way that just branding your business won't do. No, Branding Yourself Doesn't Mean You'll Do Everything It's true that creating a situation where clients strongly identify your agency with your personal image may lead them to expect to work directly with you. However, Annie says it is true to a much lesser extent than people may imagine. At the startup phase, the owner is doing pretty much everything, which is why you should really love what you do. However, if you hire really smart people that you train well then you won't have to do everything. It's natural to grow and evolve within your agency to the point of being focused on growth and your vision for the agency. When it comes to building your brand, Annie recommends posting and interacting on LinkedIn. It's a very powerful tool if you use it well and it's where she has gotten tons of new business leads. Building your brand like this is more than just posting about a new client you have. It's more about taking new stories that people are discussing and writing a related post where you position yourself as a subject matter expert. It's a good way to be consistent about putting your personal branding and message out there. Similarly, she attends webinars, seminars, and speaking engagements where she talks about personal branding. Can You Describe What You Do in 20 Seconds? If you have a business, you will eventually have to learn about personal branding. It will provide you with useful tools to interact with your audience or people in the same industry. You have to learn to draw people in with your elevator pitch. As a rule of thumb, if it takes you longer than 20 seconds to describe who you are and what you do you should really sit down and figure out your elevator pitch. To put together a successful pitch, make sure to include how you can benefit the other person. No one wants to listen to you ramble on and on about your business, but if you can summarize it in “here's what I do and here's how I can help you” then you have their attention. Always think about the ROI for the person you're talking to. How NOT to Pitch Your Business Annie once received a pitch about a Tequila testing for a client that was actually a recovering alcoholic. She wrote back to the person explaining how that pitch was so wrong on so many levels and how it would have taken a quick Google search to find out why. It really discredited that person for her. You have to know who you're pitching. It is unbelievable how many times people don't do their research ahead of time when it's actually easier thanks to social media nowadays. Also, remember that it doesn't always have to be transactional. Think about reaching out to people in the spirit of collaboration to develop a relationship. Maybe email them just to mention you really enjoyed their last article or conference. If you do that, they'll remember you when your agency can help. The Beauty of In-Person Collaboration Annie's agency has offices all over the world. Why not go virtual when so many people are making this move nowadays? They were virtual for the last two years, obviously, but PR is a collaborative industry and there are ideas that spark in an office that cannot be replicated in a Zoom meeting. “My job is to communicate,” she says, so she really prefers in-person interaction. This is especially relevant when we consider how difficult hiring and retaining talent has become. Not being able to build a relationship with them makes it all that much harder, so, when possible, she prefers to have the kind of bonding moments that only in-person interaction can provide. Want the Support of Amazing Digital Agency Owners? If you want to be around amazing agency owners that can see you may not be able to see and help you grow your agency, go to the Digital Agency Elite to learn all about our exclusive mastermind.

Our portfolios benefit from spring cleaning as much as our closets and yards do. (0:30) Andy Cross and Maria Gallagher discuss: - Stocks investors should consider trimming like hedges - 2 stocks to throw out altogether - Stocks that spark so much joy Marie Kondo would be proud - Potential comebacks for online retailers - Why they'd be hold Zscaler and Disney shares like Brood X cicadas - Actual cleaning tips! (19:00) Bill Mann talks with Oaktree Capital co-founder Howard Marks, author of Mastering the Market Cycle: Getting the Odds on Your Side. Got a question about stocks, industries, or trends? Call our voicemail: (703) 254-1445. Stocks discussed: WIX, OPEN, SFIX, PTON, MSFT, TREX, MELI, REAL, POSH, ETSY, ZS, DIS, OAK-A, OAK-B Host: Chris Hill Guests: Andy Cross, Maria Gallagher, Bill Mann, Howard Marks Engineers: Dan Boyd, Rick Engdahl