Practical Pivots

#026: Mike and Steve discuss agency life, why Mike writes himself letters from his future self, our racist reality, and what we can do about it. Also, a technical rapper shares a few technical SEO tricks.

#025: A company without a story is a company without a strategy. Learn how to create a narrative that will reshape your buyers' journey, and hear Steve and Andy's thoughts on why LinkedIn, Andy's mom, and Ultimate Frisbee are all awesome.

#024: Steve and Brent talk pivoting, niching, and the second wave of marketing trends. Also, it’s okay to say “I don’t know" sometimes—and it’s okay to build a BMX ramp in your front yard always.

#023: This week’s episode of The Verblio Show features Chris Rudolph, digital agency coach and founder of Freedom Business Family. A true lifelong coach, Chris began his career with the Chicago Bulls. Since trading ballplayers for business owners, however, his focus has been on helping clients find success in both their business and their work-life balance.In our conversation, we chat about his approach as a coach and the lessons he’s learned as a business owner himself, with a host of broad-ranging insights to dig into along the way:One bold step to get yourself out of the weeds as an agency owner (Hint: It will require you to actually have an OOO message)How agencies can lead with a strong ROI and quick win to set themselves apartThe importance of both goals and systems, and why you need two types of people on your teamWhy “how” isn’t always the right question – and what to ask insteadChris also has a special offer for our Verblio listeners: Check out their video at https://www.verblio.com/show for a link to schedule a free 1-on-1 Agency Growth coaching session with the man himself. 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!

#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!