Sports Card Strategy Show

Are you in college and looking for a career path? Whether or not you like sports, or are interested in a career in professional or college sports, there are some solid learnings in here for you. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with three really solid current college students that have made a wise decision to do a summer internship with a professional sports league based out of Nashville, TN. I was invited to share my story of how I made a decision at age 19 to start my career. It was fun to share my experiences and my path with the Detroit Pistons, from cleaning out closets to being trusted to keep the official scorebook for the NBA. From 100 people in the 22k seat arena to the Malice at The Palace and it's impact on my career. Please listen and enjoy!

Small Businesses want to know how to generate web traffic. SEO and blogging are still extremely effective ways to get found, and convert visitors into customers. More than 65% of Web Traffic still comes in from Google Organic Search (Blogging and SEO). In this episode of my podcast, you hear real audio from a client call about the technical side of Organic Search (Search Engine Tiles, Meta Descriptions and Schema), as well as the Strategic Content Marketing side (Blogging, Partnership Creation, Link Building and Social Media). I use a fitness analogy to break down the concept that just like getting fit is accelerated by both eating well AND working out, getting found on Google is accelerated by both having technically sound SEO strategy, and creating relevant content for your target audience and distributing effectively on a consistent basis.

What Does General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Mean For Websites? So, GDPR, huh? :) I'm thinking that you either fall into one of two camps on this. Either you're familiar with this, or you're not. Regardless of what camp you fall into, and regardless of if you're a small business owner, marketer, web developer or whatever, this will be one of those things that EVERYBODY will ask you what you should be doing about it. Starting now. First of all, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is a law that goes into effect today in the European Union, but it effects most businesses in the world because there's always a chance that an EU citizen or business could provide you their user data through your website. Having said that, some companies have done a better job than others at scrambling around to prepare for ensuring GDPR compliance on their digital presence. I'm trying to keep this simple. Here's my guide.

I was fortunate enough to attend VoiceCon in NYC, hosted by VaynerMedia. The conference focused on Digital Audio, Podcasting, Alexa Skills, Google Home Actions and more. Among the line-up of speakers were Justine Bloome (Chief Strategy Officer, VaynerMedia), Naomi Makofsky (Global Product Partnerships, Google Assistant, Google), Devin Nagy (Director, Technology and Emerging Platforms, Diageo), Mike Mignano (CEO, Anchor), Ryan MacInnis (Director of Marketing, Voysis) and Speakers: Avery Durnan (Vice President, Media Platforms, VaynerMedia), Susan Canavari (Chief Brand Officer, Chase), Gina Garrubbo (President and CEO, National Public Media), Ken Lagana (Head of Sales, Panoply). I was able to ask a couple important questions related to advertising on podcasts, and securing your brand name within a Google Home or Alexa Skill.

In 2006, my beautiful wife Kate (sorry, I always refer to her that way, but she is a beautiful person, so I can't NOT refer to her that way :) said that she wanted to run a marathon. It was on her "bucket list." I was totally out of shape - like 55+ pounds overweight. Seriously. I had no business training for a marathon. But I was only 25 years old, and definitely need to get off my ass and do something physical. I was a hard worker - at work for the Detroit Pistons - but long hours at the arena and traveling with the team were my excuse for eating buckets of Thai food, Pizza and totally letting myself go physically. I'd sleep in until sometimes 9 a.m. on workdays, again, because of the late nights at the arena. I rewarded myself with junk food for "working so hard" at my job, and let's be honest, it's fun having an "eating buddy," and I was definitely Kate's eating buddy. Here's how I went from a ridiculous 6 hour marathon time to breaking 4 hours 12 years later!

This is a special episode. Audio ripped from a phenomenal talk my wife Kate Hickey and I had with 80 high school students in Spring Hill, Tennessee about how they can start now to build their careers in marketing, engineering or any other field they might be interested. I was super pumped to have the opportunity to talk to this group of students. A must listen for anyone with a high school student or college student (or any high school or college student).

Over the past year, it's become increasingly clear - regular old email marketing just isn't really working that well anymore. B2B marketers that bought lists back in 2007-2010 and mass emailed prospects to try and convert just aren't having the same success. Why? I break it down on this episode.

I sat down with Will Acuff, co-founder of CornerToCorner.org, an amazing non-profit in Nashville, TN that has built a successful entrepreneurship program, graduating dozens of entrepreneurs each year that are increasing revenue by 20-30%. Will is full of energy, intelligence and his passion is infectious. You can't miss this show.

It's on and poppin'... the full episode with Sloane Scott of Punching Nun Group - smarter strategic marketing - out of the Nashville / Franklin, TN area. Sloane is a digital marketing pioneer and self-proclaimed "#2" with extremely hard work ethic and amazing experience as an entrepreneur and businesswoman. She had an amazing way of articulating all the points I was trying to make in a much better way in this episode. Tell me what you think!

Sometimes, when you're seeking answers to questions about your life, business, parenting, family, the pursuit of happiness, making money or how to spend your free time, you have to simply take action and either get those answers from "successful people," "people you'd have dinner with," or you have to freaking "just do it" and see how it goes. I mean, stop dwelling on the question, and seek the answer or just do until the answer finally comes to you. I've written recently about some life stories, and I'm going to continue to. Here's one in a little different format, transcribed from my business meeting with Gary Vaynerchuk, a man on my "Mount Rushmore." I learned a ton from this experience, but here are three main points: - Whoever is closest to the customer always wins - When you hedge, you give up your leverage - Never let anyone else dictate the outcome of your success But I think the biggest takeaway, that I wasn't expecting, quite simply is, I learned the TRUE IMPORTANCE OF BUI