Archive 4: 2020-2023

839: GreenPal: Create Apps, Solve Problems, Start and Grow Tech Startups with Bryan Clayton

January 25, 2022

Bryan Clayton is the CEO and founder of GreenPal, an online marketplace that connects homeowners with local lawn care professionals. Prior to starting GreenPal, he owned a landscaping company for 15 years. Today, Brian talks about the journey of bootstrapping GreenPal from the ground up, sharing insights on building a successful business without outside funding and the importance of focusing on customer needs and revenue growth.

In this episode of Marketer of the Day, Clayton discusses GreenPal’s approach to creating a seamless marketplace for homeowners and service providers. The app leverages data from Google Street View, aerial imagery, and Zillow to help landscapers provide fast, accurate quotes, streamlining payments and scheduling while maintaining a low take rate of 5–10%. Clayton also highlights the importance of vetting professionals, tracking repeat bookings, and creating a flywheel effect that promotes top-performing contractors. By adding value at every step—from lead generation to payment and rebooking—GreenPal differentiates itself from traditional directories. For homeowners and service providers alike, the platform saves time, reduces friction, and helps professionals build sustainable businesses. GreenPal is available on the App Store and Google Play, and Brian engages with users directly via Instagram @BrianMClayton.

Quotes

“Bootstrapping means funding the business off of its own revenue. Revenue is the best form of financing because it keeps you focused on what really matters—the customer.”

“Once we saw 30 people sign up on a Saturday, we realized people could discover this thing and use it, and if we could get 30, we could get hundreds more.”

“We offer a business in a box for landscaping professionals—they can plug in, get their first 100 customers in a couple of months, and improve their livelihood.”

“If you’re thinking about starting a business, get in the game. It’s never too late—you didn’t miss it.”

Resources

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:12 — 25.1MB) | Embed

838: Tactics vs. Strategies: Boost Your Social Engagement and Develop Consistent Traffic with Paid Ads, Funnels, and Tracking with Oliver Feakins

January 20, 2022

Oliver Feakins is the founder of Trusted Search Marketing (now TrackFive), a digital marketing agency that offers best-in-class SEO, paid search, and social media services, as well as recruitment marketing. With over 15 years of experience in the industry, Oliver has established himself as an expert in the field of digital marketing. Today, Oliver discusses the challenges faced by marketers in the current digital landscape, particularly the impact of changes in platforms like Facebook and Google. He emphasizes the importance of adaptability, continuous testing, and a multi-platform approach to ensure consistent traffic and engagement for businesses.

In this episode of Marketer of the Day, Oliver shares insights into building sustainable marketing strategies that go beyond quick wins or flashy tactics. He emphasizes the importance of landing pages, video content, and continual A/B testing to optimize conversion rates, highlighting tools like Optimizely, Unbounce, and Surfer SEO for effective experimentation and content optimization. Oliver also discusses adapting to SEO trends, including conversational search and natural language processing, and the critical distinction between strategy and tactics—ensuring that all marketing efforts are guided by a coherent, long-term plan. His agency focuses on partnering with clients who are committed to best practices, scalable growth, and measurable results, making strategy, testing, and platform diversification core principles of their approach. For more information or to explore working with Oliver, visit trustedsearchmarketing.com.

Quotes

“It’s not that your ads are getting stale or your landing pages are stale—it’s that your competitors are releasing ads and pages that convert better than yours.”

“The foundation is strategy first. You can have tactics, fads, and trends, but without the why, you’re just throwing things at the wall.”

“Keep it simple. A clean, to-the-point landing page often converts better than a complicated page with a hundred bells and whistles.”

“Success in digital marketing comes from continual testing, iterating, and adapting, not from set-it-and-forget-it campaigns.”

Resources

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:58 — 30.4MB) | Embed

837: Remote Work From Home Masterplan: Implement the Entrepreneur Lifestyle with Mike Arnold

January 18, 2022

Mike Arnold is a work-from-home entrepreneur with expertise in business management, business development, time management, strategy, efficiency, and coaching. He is the author of the book "Slacking Off," which aims to help people be happier and more efficient while working from home. Today, Mike talks about the challenges of working from home, including the need to have a plan and set boundaries to avoid distractions and maintain productivity. He emphasizes the importance of prioritizing self-care and being present during work tasks to ensure optimal performance.

In this episode of Marketer of the Day, Mike shares practical strategies for thriving as a remote worker, emphasizing the need for a personal plan, boundaries, and focus. He stresses that success in remote work comes from dedicating time to yourself first, managing distractions intentionally, and being fully present in meetings and calls. Mike highlights his book, Slacking Off, which provides exercises and insights to help remote workers analyze their habits, maintain work-life balance, and create personalized productivity strategies. He also discusses the broader impact of his work in medical technology, helping patients recover from home while providing efficiency for healthcare providers. Key takeaways include the importance of self-discipline, structured interaction for camaraderie, and mastering the balance between personal well-being and professional output.

Quotes

“The biggest principle is that when I’m 100% dedicated to me first, my performance is amazing. When I feel great, the rest of the day is effortless.”

“Working from home requires planning and intentionality—freedom without a plan often leads to wasted time.”

“Everyone benefits from understanding how they ‘slack off.’ Take a day, avoid work, and write down what you do—that’s the first step to mastering remote work.”

“Distractions, Zoom fatigue, and lack of camaraderie are real challenges, but structured focus and purposeful engagement can overcome them.”

Resources

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:13 — 31.5MB) | Embed

836: PodMatch: Network with Podcast Guests and Hosts to Build Your Reach, Influence, and Traffic with Alex Sanfilippo

January 13, 2022

Alex Sanfilippo is the host of the top-rated entrepreneurship podcast "Creating a Brand" now Podcasting Made Simple and the founder of PodMatch, a free service that connects podcast guests and hosts for interviews. Today, Alex discusses the importance of podcasting for building relationships and trust with listeners, as well as the challenges of finding guests and being a guest on other shows. He also shares insights on his new platform, Podcast SOP, which helps podcasters streamline their episode release process.

In this episode of Marketer of the Day, Alex discusses his current projects, including Pod Match and Podcast SOP, which streamline podcast guest matching and episode management. Pod Match connects hosts and guests efficiently, while Podcast SOP provides podcasters with a checklist-driven system to organize and track each episode’s production, including media uploads and real-time template updates. He shares practical strategies for pitching podcasts, emphasizing leading with value, making meaningful requests, offering credibility, and making it easy for hosts to say no. Key takeaways include treating podcasting as a consistent practice, focusing on serving audiences, and leveraging technology to reduce stress and improve workflow. Listeners can explore his work at creatingabrand.com, podmatch.com, and podcastsop.com.

Quotes

“People do business with who they know, like, and trust. Podcasting gives you the chance to develop that know, like, and trust in a way that a website or ad never can.”

“Lead with value, make a meaningful request, offer credibility, and make it easy for someone to say no. That’s the formula that gets responses.”

“Podcasting is practice—your goal is to serve people and help solve problems. If you focus on that, the rest falls into place.”

“The biggest reason podcasters fail is workflow stress. If you make releasing episodes easier, you make podcasting sustainable.”

Resources

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:40 — 30.1MB) | Embed

835: Leading Teams Effectively to Grow your Business with Amy Anderson

January 11, 2022

Amy Anderson is the Co-Founder of Wild Coffee Marketing, a widely respected and creative industry leader. She sees the unique opportunity to leverage creativity to transform both brands and entire organizations across multiple sectors. With her extensive experience as a marketing executive, Amy brings a strategic and client-centric approach to her work. Today, Amy talks about building a strong marketing team and developing a clear strategy before diving into implementation.

In this episode of Marketer of the Day, Anderson discusses her current work helping businesses accelerate growth through strategic marketing, content creation, and team management. She explains the value of fractional CMO services, emphasizing that her team functions as client-side marketers who both develop strategy and implement campaigns, covering channels from social media to video and AI-driven marketing. Key takeaways include the importance of time-blocking, clarity breaks, focused strategy before execution, and maintaining empathy and compassion for team members. Anderson encourages businesses to “not let great get in the way of good,” starting with practical, measurable actions that can be scaled and refined over time. Listeners are invited to learn more and explore her services at wildcoffeemarketing.com.

Quotes

“Your company’s own database is the most valuable asset you have, even if those leads seem cold; staying top of mind is critical.”

“Not letting great get in the way of good is key—deploy your work, iterate, and improve over time.”

“Empathy and compassion towards your team is essential, especially in a market with so much movement and chaos.”

“Marketing is simple: who are you, saying what, to whom, and when—everything else is execution around that core principle.”

Resources

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:15 — 32.5MB) | Embed

How to Build a Successful Internet Marketing Business in 2022

January 7, 2022

I've been really consistent with the podcast lately, showing up to all my scheduled interviews -- 6 this week.

The real secret to creating a successful podcast that doesn't simply fail, is to interview other people. You create a Calendly account (free), to setup a special link with your "office hours" -- your future guest submits their bio to you and it adds the meeting to your Google Calendar. When the meeting times rolls around, you click the one button to open your Zoom room, have a discussion with your guest for 20 minutes, and that's an episode. We explain this inside our Podcast Crusher system and we have a monthly service called DFY Podcast where we do all the tasks for your podcast like editing, production, publishing to all the channels, marketing like writing your promotional emails, social graphics, etc.

When most people think about a "podcast" they think about sitting alone in a room for hundreds of episodes on end, or maybe with the same host every time. Instead, network with other people in your industry or even a little bit outside your industry... they give you content, traffic, and "networking"... and you even pick up all kinds of cool ideas for yourself.

For example, yesterday I interviewed Smooth Sailing Captain Lyndsay Phillips (the "other" Capt. Phillips) who delivered this juicy morsel: create the occasional blog post or promo email that's a "round up" or "curation" of some of your recent podcast episodes. We haven't premiered the episode yet, but that's what I'm doing now!

What's interesting about this idea for YOU and your podcast is that you can "string" together a little bit of an action plan. For example:

Website Rental Local Lead Generation Side Hustle

I was really impressed with guest Luke Van Der Veer's "Website Rental" idea. Click here to listen to the episode. His concept works like this:

choose a service-based industry located in your local area, like "garage door opener repair."
create a landing page to collect leads, optimize that page for Google ranking, use your internet marketing skills to start sending traffic
while you're waiting for those steps to pay off, monitor social media -- I'm talking about Facebook groups focused on your geographical area, NextDoor, places like that -- proactively looking for people seeking garage door repair

When that "local" lead seeking garage door repair comes in, perhaps someone you found on social media, you now call around your local area to locate that garage door repairman, and land them that new business for free.

Repeat this process until you are consistently finding garage door repair leads and hooking them up with a solution that same day. By this point, you ideally get some consistent traffic, and perhaps you rank highly in Google for "[city name] garage door repair" at which point, you can charge that garage door repair client a monthly fee in exchange for the leads your landing page is bringing in. It's a cool "side hustle" of an idea that could grow into a larger business for you.

Charge What You're Worth By Working Less

Mike Killen, author of Five Figure Funnels, was also an extremely impressive guest you should check out. His idea: you're working too hard. Instead of scrambling for low-ticket clients, Mike says you should work backwards...

Let's say you want to earn $100k per year...
Cut this up into landing four $25k clients
Spend each quarter marketing your $25k package with the goal of landing one sale

It's an interesting way for you to stop "scrambling" so much and to simplify what you do.

Make Sure It All Leads to Something

Finally, another guest that completely blew me away was John Warrillow, from "Built to Sell." The usual paradox with selling a business is: in order to find an excited buyer, the business has to be on its way up (instead of something you're tired of), and consistently making money.

John's answer to this is: you should make the steps to sell your business anyway, so that you'll have more freedom. If someone buys your business, you can use that money to retire OR buy a new business and repeat the process.

The overall strategy with selling your business is sort of like "e-myth on crack." The point of The E-Myth is that you're probably doing all the work in your business, so you should systematize what you do into a repeatable checklist, and then act as the "Manager" who tells the "Workers" what tasks to complete. Then, hire a "Manager" (or many managers) to tell the workers what to do, making you the "Boss."

John says that you should continue this process until you pay a "Boss" to run your company, making the hierarchy Owner -> Boss -> Managers -> Workers.

Your sole job as the "Owner" is no longer to run the company, but spend all your time finding a buyer.

I am more than willing to introduce you to any of the guests from my podcast as guests for your show, if you're in need of content, connections, and traffic. The secret to you creating a podcast is just getting started (our DFY Podcast team will setup your podcast for free) and the secret to continuing your successful podcast is to delegate the "hard" technical work. Just show up to your interviews so it's not a time suck or a "beast" that requires you to learn -- and perform -- a ton of tasks. Just show up to your podcast as the "talent" and let our team do everything else.

834: Built to Sell: Create a Business That Thrives On Its Own with John Warrillow

January 6, 2022

John Warrillow is an expert on helping business owners build, accelerate, and harvest the value of their businesses. He is the author of several books, including "Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You," "The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry," and "The Art of Selling Your Business: Winning Strategies and Secret Hacks for Exiting on Top." Today, John discusses his recent focus on launching a new product that aims to help entrepreneurs document their standard operating procedures, a crucial step in building a business that can run without the founder's constant involvement.

In this episode of Marketer of the Day, Warrillow discusses his current focus on helping entrepreneurs build businesses that succeed without their constant involvement. He highlights the risks of cross-selling multiple products and the importance of remaining disciplined in offering one differentiated service or product to maximize business value, illustrated by the story of Stephanie Breedlove, who sold her $9 million niche business for $54 million. Warrillow also shares the philosophy of treating a business like a child, nurturing it to independence. He promotes his books, including Built to Sell, The Automatic Customer, and The Art of Selling Your Business, as well as free resources and tools available at builttosell.com/marketer to guide entrepreneurs in systematizing their businesses and increasing long-term value.

Quotes

“Most of us entrepreneurs are Quick Starts; we’re great at starting things but not at systematizing them.”

“The biggest mistake most entrepreneurs make is cross-selling existing customers new things instead of focusing on the one thing they do best.”

“Think of your business as a child—you want it to grow into a happy, functioning entity that can succeed without you.”

“Once your business can succeed without you, you have all the cards: sell it, delegate it

Resources

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:15 — 26.1MB) | Embed

833: Have Meaningful Customer Surveys and Conversations to Create Meaningful Ideas with Darshan Mehta

January 4, 2022

Darshan Mehta is the founder of iRESEARCH, an insights platform to quickly and affordably extract insights from consumers worldwide. He also runs ConnectQuick.com, an app for instant connections and engaging interactions. Darshan has over 25 years of experience in branding, marketing, insights, strategy, and technology. Today, Darshan talks about tapping into consumer conversations to uncover valuable insights that can help businesses make informed decisions. He emphasizes the power of using humor and observations to understand consumer behavior and shares a case study of how a retailer improved their sales by adjusting their store hours based on customer insights.

In this episode of Marketer of the Day, Darshan explains how AI Research’s platform allows businesses to extract insights affordably and at scale, combining focus group-style conversations with survey validation. He stresses the importance of understanding the full customer experience, from pre-purchase research to post-purchase engagement, and how companies can use these insights to improve products, services, and marketing strategies. Darshan also discusses his upcoming book, Getting to Aha: Why Today’s Insights Are Tomorrow’s Facts, which explores how to identify and leverage actionable insights for business success. To learn more, listeners can visit ai-research.com or contact Darshan directly at DM@ai-research.com.

Quotes

“An insight is the combination of things put together that helps you understand what motivates or triggers consumers to act.”

“Most people nowadays are no longer buying products and services—they’re buying experiences.”

“When you have a group engaged in a conversation, patterns and commonalities emerge that let you validate or challenge your suspicions before scaling.”

“Sometimes simplicity and just doing it, guided by what your market is telling you, is the best way to reach the North Star you’re seeking.”

Resources

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:45 — 23.8MB) | Embed

832: Brand Strategy 101: Market and Product Research, Product Design, and Brand Awareness with Michael Keplinger

December 30, 2021

Michael Keplinger is the founder of SmashBrand, an agile brand strategy agency that specializes in market research, product design, and testing for consumer-packaged goods. Today, Michael shares his expertise in building successful CPG brands, highlighting the importance of leveraging partnerships, conducting thorough consumer research, and taking a strategic approach to branding and packaging to differentiate products in crowded marketplaces.

In this episode of Marketer of the Day, Michael shares his approach to brand strategy, including real-world examples like reimagining packaging for Red Gold canned tomatoes to capture attention and engage a younger, millennial parent audience. He explains that successful CPG branding requires a combination of market research, design, testing, and ongoing optimization to reduce risk and maximize shelf impact. Smash Brand works primarily with mid-sized CPG brands that need to make bold moves to stay relevant and competitive. For more insights, case studies, and resources, Michael directs listeners to smashbrand.com and his LinkedIn profile, where he shares examples of his agency’s work and thought leadership in the CPG space.

Quotes

“What gets me excited is putting a really good product on the shelf, not just what’s in the box, but how people perceive it.”

“Consumers have a lot more choices today, so elevating your brand and connecting emotionally with your audience is key.”

“The first objective is to stand out on the shelf, and then you bring your message and story forward.”

“Testing is an integral part of every step we do, helping clients make bold moves without risking their market share.”

Resources

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:28 — 22.6MB) | Embed

831: Grow, Build and Generate Leads for Your Business Using Video Editing Tools with Augie Johnston

December 28, 2021

Augie Johnston is an entrepreneur and former professional basketball player who is making waves in the video editing industry with his startup, VidChops. After growing a successful YouTube channel with over 20 million views, Augie realized the pain point of video editing and decided to create a solution for other YouTubers and content creators. Today, Augie discusses the power of online video and how it can be used to grow a business, sharing his insights on video marketing fundamentals, equipment, and strategies for YouTube video creation and monetization.

In this episode of Marketer of the Day, Augie shares actionable strategies for leveraging online video as a marketing and business growth tool. He emphasizes starting simply, even with a phone, and focusing on fundamentals like lighting, audio, and content quality. He discusses the importance of understanding your audience and creating binge-worthy videos that maximize watch time and suggested video placements on YouTube. Augie also highlights the best monetization strategies beyond AdSense, including lead generation, email capture, and product sales. He outlines key editing techniques such as jump cuts, crop-ins, and end cards to maintain viewer engagement. For entrepreneurs and creators looking to streamline their workflow, Vid Shops offers affordable editing packages starting at $325 per month, helping clients scale from minimal views to millions per month. More information can be found at vidshops.com.

Quotes

“Stop worrying about production; just get the fundamentals right—lighting, depth of field, and good audio.”

“The hard part is the words that come out of your mouth; the delivery is what gets better with practice.”

“Online video should be part of your marketing strategy in many ways—ads, landing pages, content—because video is the most powerful media.”

“Start with your phone, record 50 videos, then upgrade your equipment; it’s all about creating a habit and improving over time.”

Resources

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:37 — 31.0MB) | Embed

Archive 4: 2020-2023

Quotes

Resources

Quotes

Resources

Quotes

Resources

Quotes

Resources

Quotes

Resources

Website Rental Local Lead Generation Side Hustle

Charge What You're Worth By Working Less

Make Sure It All Leads to Something

Quotes

Resources

Quotes

Resources

Quotes

Resources

Quotes

Resources

Done For You Podcasting

Signup for Free Report

About Robert & The Podcast

Recent Posts

Income Machine

Bestselling Books

Categories

Archives