Sports Card Strategy Show

I asked CARROT Wellness CEO Michael Antaran "What advice would you give business owners like yourself about the Voice version of their platform in terms of incorporating an Alexa Skill or Google Action into their digital presence?" His answer was amazing, unexpected, and spoke to my heart - "I would advise them to leverage what they have. I'm all about being resourceful, and with four guys on my team, we use the right data to make the right decisions at the right time. That's the only way to survive in a Start-Up. What I would definitely advise them is, make sure you look at the data. I know there's a lot of feeling that comes into play. Everybody has that. You wouldn't be in this business going into a start-up unless you had some gut reaction about something you think you can solve, right? So make sure you look at the data to make sure you back up your assumptions and rethink about and revisit all the different assumptions you made, to make sure you're still on that right path to profitability. Don't forget about the data, make sure it drives where you want to be, and make sure it drives what you were predicting before you started. It's always great to have a gut feeling about something, but as an engineer, I always want to make sure I have a pathway I need to follow. If I'm not on that pathway, it doesn't make any sense to continue on." Check out the full episode here.

Michael Antaran and I have a lot in common. We were both born and raised in Michigan. We both left jobs in the corporate world to create our own start-ups. We’re both building software on a consistent basis, and we’re building Alexa Skills and Google Actions (voice-based apps on top of Alexa and Google Assistant) and integrating everything into one overall experience. Watch the entire video or listen to the podcast while you’re working, running, walking the dog, whatever and you’ll hear all of that, but the key points are here… Michael is the CEO of CARROT Wellness, a mobile app that rewards you for walking. Period. That’s it. Super simple. But how he got to where he is today isn’t as simple. But it is really freaking cool. Michael is a software engineer who worked for Chrysler. A dream job since he fell in love with cars growing up in Motor City. But when his first child was born, he was up in the middle of the night tending to the baby, and couldn’t fall back asleep, so he started coding mobile apps (remember, the iPhone had JUST come out). A gamer, he coded games, and turned these 80 hour work weeks into a successful mobile app gaming company that was so successful he left his full time job to pursue it. Four years later, he pivoted. Not for business reasons, but for personal reasons. And there was nothing wrong in his family health wise, thank God. But, there was something wrong, in his wife’s opinion, with the negative impact she thought his company was having on the youth of America. “I was helping kids get fat,” says Antaran. Having a moral issue with this, he decided to take a year, and change the way all of his mobile games let users buy more lives and power-ups. Instead of charging money for them, he made users walk to earn them. Yep, he tapped into the pedometer on smartphones, and rewarded gamers for walking. “You have to do the work. You can’t fake it or enter your own information,” he adds. This story quickly got the attention of major health systems in Michigan back in 2015, and CARROT was born. CARROT is now mainly a B2B app that companies can use to promote health and wellness among their employees, but there are consumer facing versions, and Alexa Skills integrated as well. CARROT is a full experience. “It’s all about engagement,” says Antaran. “Without engagement, you can’t improve.” Why did CARROT’s four person team of software engineers add Alexa Skills into the experience? “The data,” said Antaran. “Start-ups can’t live without it.” Which brings me to maybe the most important thing Michael and I have in common – making data driven decisions. I highly encourage you to listen to this entire episode. Thanks and have a great day!

Yes! Your business can sell products and services on Alexa. You need a Custom Alexa Skill to do it, and we can build it for you, so your stakeholders can just say "Alexa, book an appointment with my CPA firm," or "Alexa, order my fitness supplements." This is done via Amazon Pay, NOT "In-Skill Purchasing." This video explains how businesses can get started selling their products and services on Alexa.

Attention marketing directors and small business owners. This is a great tip for you all to spin up quick small landing page websites by duplicating a full website in minutes using WPEngine WordPress hosting. Then, you have the ability to change around content easily in your new domain.

Ever wonder how to save time posting Facebook Ads, so that they can appear on Instagram, mobile apps and more? My friends, it’s called the Facebook Ads Audience Network, and it’s turnkey and set up for your business to use in Facebook Ads Manager. I talk about it here in my post keynote Q/A session at the Mt. Juliet Chamber of Commerce.

Which should your small business choose? Google Ads or Google Adwords Express? This is one of my favorite questions, and I answer it pretty emphatically in this keynote at the Mt. Juliet Chamber of Commerce Small Business Boom (during the Q/A Session at the end).

When recently speaking at the Mt. Juliet (TN) Chamber of Commerce about Google Analytics, Google My Business and Google Ads, I was asked - "Don't most people skip the Google Results that say Ad?" The proof is in the data, they don't. In this video I explain Google Adwords Express, how it works and how you can make it work for your business to generate phone call leads.

My WordPress Content Manager friends, this one is for you. You don't need a developer to make your CAPTCHA in the footer of your website not look horrible. This video shows you how to use Gravity Forms Conditional Logic to only show CAPTCHA after a user enters their email address in the field. This prevents email spam that you DON'T want on your lists. For the Data Driven Daily Tip that shows you how to add CAPTCHA to your Gravity Forms, click here.

I had a blast at the Mt. Juliet (Tennessee - close to Nashville) Chamber of Commerce Small Business Boost, discussing how to prevent "Small Business Injuries" by increasing productivity, increasing visibility on Google, and Tracking Results using Google Analytics, in what I called the Google Geek Session.

Amid the mad dash to try and grow your Business' Facebook Following, it's easy to forget about the why behind it. You want to connect with your target audience, understand who they are, and how you can better engage/help them. That's why it's important to look at who is following your page / liking your page. This video shows you exactly How To Find A List Of Your Facebook Followers, and it's not where you'd think it would be. :) You're not going to go to "More" > "Insights" at the top, but rather, "Settings" > "People and other Pages." Why Facebook makes it so confusing and keeps changing things, we'll never really know, but in the meantime, Data Driven Design will always be here to help you as your digital marketing strategists!