Practical Pivots

#022: John Harris is leading something radically different and hugely ambitious: a "reverse holding company" for digital agencies. In this episode he shares how his Worldwide Partner‘s network creates super-powered teams through 70 agencies in 40 countries, why big brands seek out the advantages created by a network, and how his thinking can help your agency stand out among the 100,000+ agencies that exist in the U.S. alone.Note: Want your pitch to sound less like “we’re a digital agency, based on technology, with great people, who focuses on results”? Or hear more about what mistakes agencies make when pitching bigger clients, and how to avoid those mistakes? John’s seen it all, from big agencies to startup and enterprise brands and this is a particularly useful conversation to tune into.https://www.verblio.com/The Verblio Show is your weekly cocktail of content marketing fun and fruitful conversation. Hear the full interview with Verblio’s CEO Steve Pockross and talk with more marketers, digital agencies, and an assortment of thought leaders anywhere you get your podcasts!

#021:  "Advertising is ____, content marketing is ____." If you can’t fill in those two blanks (and make it catchy), you should definitely listen to this week’s episode of The Verblio Show with Andy Crestodina. Andy is co-founder of Orbit Media, a 19-year-old web design agency. He quite literally wrote the book on content marketing, which Jay Baer has called “The most practical book ever written about digital marketing." In our interview, Andy shares a literal wealth of knowledge about content marketing, productivity, learning, and much, much more: The one tweak you can make to turn content marketing from a years-long slog into a ‘results before you hit publish’ investment - The exact formula for thought leadership and the data to back it up - The opinions / observations / data hierarchy - What you should and should not do with best practices - Escapades in China, exercise in 2 minutes/day, wake time & productivity correlation https://www.verblio.com/The Verblio Show is your weekly cocktail of content marketing fun and fruitful conversation. Hear the full interview with Verblio’s CEO Steve Pockross and talk with more marketers, digital agencies, and an assortment of thought leaders anywhere you get your podcasts!

#020:  This episode features leading agency coach Karl Sakas, who spoke with Steve early in the COVID crisis to share his insight into how he’s guiding his agency clients. Some quick nuggets for those who tune in: What to expect for agency revenue forecasts in 2020: Take your worst scenario and now make that your stretch scenario. Assume a 10-30% drop in revenue. · How you should respond: Over-communicate with every stakeholder. Not just your clients, but your employees and freelancers too. · What Karl is doing with his new isolated free time: Finally watching his first reality tv series. https://www.verblio.com/ The Verblio Show is your weekly cocktail of content marketing fun and fruitful conversation. Hear the full interview with Verblio’s CEO Steve Pockross and talk with more marketers, digital agencies, and an assortment of thought leaders anywhere you get your podcasts! 

#019:  In Episode 19 of The Verblio Show, Chris Dreyer, president & founder of legal SEO agency juggernaut Rankings.io, discusses his colorful—and wildly successful—journey that started by googling "how to make money online" while stuck in after-school detention (as the teacher), included inspiration from Oprah on one of his early, important #1 Google rankings, and ended up with him competing and winning in one of the most competitive digital marketing arenas on the internet: personal injury law.  In this conversation, Steve and Chris dive deep into the machine that is Rankings.io and the strategies Chris and team use to win for their clients and run a hugely successful agency including 1) a masterclass in why and how to niche down your agency, 2) how penguins (ok just one) caused Chris to have to get a real job for a while, 3) why Chris works with agency coach Karl Sakas AND is part of Jason Swenk's mastermind, 4) the reasons Rankings outsources much of its implementation work, and how they're able to seamlessly integrate vendors, and 5) Disney's biggest mistake with the Star Wars franchise and why things are more fun on the dark side of the force.https://www.verblio.com/The Verblio Show is your weekly cocktail of content marketing fun and fruitful conversation. Hear the full interview with Verblio’s CEO Steve Pockross and talk with more marketers, digital agencies, and an assortment of thought leaders anywhere you get your podcasts!

#018: If you run or work at a digital agency and don’t know who Bob Ruffolo is, you need to watch this episode of The Verblio Show. Bob is the founder and CEO of IMPACT. Among his many accomplishments: he was the HubSpot agency of the year 2016, merged with They Ask You Answer author Marcus Sheridan, transitioned the agency from a traditional agency to a company that focuses on educating companies and agencies about inbound methodologies (to name just a few). In his conversation with Steve, Bob shares some outstanding insights into broad-ranging agency and management areas:How IMPACT is thriving through the COVID pandemicWhy his organization works with multiple coaches and consultantsThe deep flaw with being a superstar agency founderhttps://www.verblio.com/The Verblio Show is your weekly cocktail of content marketing fun and fruitful conversation. Hear the full interview with Verblio’s CEO Steve Pockross and talk with more marketers, digital agencies, and an assortment of thought leaders anywhere you get your podcasts!

#017: This episode features renowned digital marketing guru Ryan Stewart. What’s a clear sign that you’re interviewing a truly accomplished and impressive marketer: you have to start the interview by asking him how he even describes what he does. Founder of acclaimed search marketing agency WEBRIS and multiple other companies, Ryan is likely even more well known for his speaking appearances and his content on how to cut through the noise of the crowded digital marketing multiverse. And he provides that content frequently, in an extremely pragmatic and process-driven manner, and seemingly without the need for breathing between sentences. Ryan and Steve discuss the enormous and fleeting opportunity for marketing on LinkedIn, what truly moves the needle for content marketing results, and a litany of best practices of digital marketers.https://www.verblio.com/The Verblio Show is your weekly cocktail of content marketing fun and fruitful conversation. Hear the full interview with Verblio’s CEO Steve Pockross and talk with more marketers, digital agencies, and an assortment of thought leaders anywhere you get your podcasts!

#016: During times of crisis, it's tempting for us as leaders to put all focus externally—how can we bring on more clients? How can we serve the ones we already have to keep them around? But, ignoring the critical components of organizational health and communication can be disastrous for your company. This is why we're so thrilled to talk with Jodi Grossman in this episode. Jodi has been Steve's executive coach at two different companies and at Verblio she coaches the entire leadership team too.In this conversation, we cover: The concept of backbone & heart, and why it's even more critical right now, How much information leaders should share with their teams right nowThe principle Jodi learned when studying biology that's equally applicable to companies...and much, much more.If you're in a leadership position, watching and reflecting on the concepts Jodi brings forward might be the most important thing you can do this week.https://www.verblio.com/The Verblio Show is your weekly cocktail of content marketing fun and fruitful conversation. Hear the full interview with Verblio’s CEO Steve Pockross and talk with more marketers, digital agencies, and an assortment of thought leaders anywhere you get your podcasts!

#015: Managing social media for clients can be a GIANT pain for digital marketing agencies. So much so that a lot of agencies we talk to won’t go anywhere near it—too much hassle of managing assets, managing approvals, and proving ROI. So, it was fascinating to talk with Ross Gray on Episode 15 of The Verblio Show to hear about what he’s learned by founding Cloud Campaign, which has helped hundreds of digital agencies streamline their social media logistics.Ross and Steve chat about:The biggest mistake agencies make when it comes to managing social media for clientsThe two unexpected reasons why organic social media continues to be important even in a time when platforms are ratcheting down organic reachWhat all companies should be doing on social media right nowThe controversial social media tactic that will drive engagement over and over againhttps://www.verblio.com/The Verblio Show is your weekly cocktail of content marketing fun and fruitful conversation. Hear the full interview with Verblio’s CEO Steve Pockross and talk with more marketers, digital agencies, and an assortment of thought leaders anywhere you get your podcasts!

#014: So much of the advice on the COVID crisis and business is about ... business. But, there's another hugely important thing for business leaders to think about—themselves. Specifically, how addressing the self as a foundational layer can lead to better decisions and business outcomes. We're so grateful to leading agency transformation coach Kelly Campbell for adding a new and powerful perspective to our conversation on managing and marketing through the crisis.Some key highlights from our discussion:Why this crisis is so different is that there’s a triple impact of work, health, and emotion—and all need to be taken into account to respondIt's transforming our entire action-orientation culture to one where empathy, vulnerability, compassion, and connection are the core valuesThe barrier of separate personas at work and home are also breaking down, which allows, and even requires, all of us to show up as our authentic selves all of the timehttps://www.verblio.com/The Verblio Show is your weekly cocktail of content marketing fun and fruitful conversation. Hear the full interview with Verblio’s CEO Steve Pockross and talk with more marketers, digital agencies, and an assortment of thought leaders anywhere you get your podcasts!

#013: This episode, we had the pleasure of talking with Suneet Bhatt. Suneet is on the short list of people Steve personally turns to for advice on business leadership, marketing, and strategy. In this conversation you’re going to learn why. While Suneet has held marketing & growth leadership roles at big name companies like HelpScout, Crazy Egg, LiveIntent, and Chartbeat, and is currently president of a hot social impact outsourcing company, it might be the other things on his LinkedIn profile that are the truly impressive part. These include authoring children’s books to a role he’s held from January 2014 — present titled “co-founder/dad”.In this broad-ranging conversation Suneet and I cover a whole lot, including:What LeBron James can remind all marketing leadersThe worst question to ask when asking for feedbackWhat do growth-obsessed companies get right Why growth teams need designers, engineers, and data scientistsWhere to start your marketing when you have so many options to choose fromhttps://www.verblio.com/The Verblio Show is your weekly cocktail of content marketing fun and fruitful conversation. Hear the full interview with Verblio’s CEO Steve Pockross and talk with more marketers, digital agencies, and an assortment of thought leaders anywhere you get your podcasts!