The Builders

In the last episode ( last solo episode ) this year, Matt Levenhagen shares 6 big takeaways. These are things that made a big difference, impacted sales and helped grow his agency. One of the great things about a podcast that shares stories from the trenches is that the lessons are relatable and translatable. Take one or a few of these and they could have a positive impact on your business as well! Or serve as a great reminder not to ignore these things. Networking had a major impact as an example. It’s something everyone can learn to do or apply in some form in their own business to get similar results. Building the team.. trying new things. When hearing them, they may sound to simplicistic.. Too fundamental. But the fundamentals are easy to let slide. And, done right, can have REAL impacts on a businesses success .. Enjoy!

This week we Rhonda Negard joined me to talk about her journey and provide advice about starting your own business. How many people are at a corporate job right now and have dreamed about being in business for themselves? She shares her advice on how to make that transition and be prepared ahead of time. Of course, in between there you’ll find many other nuggets. From networking, not being afraid to take advantage of an opportunity if you don’t know everything, learning from doing… we share our own stories when we lost a job and transitioned into something else. How do you start if one day you just find yourself without a job? So many nuggets.. enjoy the listen!

In this episode I’m joined by Bridget Willard.  She’s written marketing books, does consulting and helps people with marketing, strategy, copywriting and social media account management.  She’s got a really interesting background… we are taken on her journey to discover herself and what she’s meant to do. Mid-way through Bridget shares her challenges with mental health and how she overcame some pretty serious issues herself..  She describes that journey and how she found her way to her “why” and a better place in her life. The episode is capped by us talking about her business, website and social media.  I was curious about her company branding which centers around 'hospitality'.. so we dig into that and what it all means.  As well as how she likes to look at social media.. “Good afternoon everybody…“ “Noooooorm!”  Enjoy!

I’m joined today by Alexandra Spalato.  She’s a freelance developer and entrepreneur with several years of experience working as a WordPress expert at Codeable.  Alexandra is a co-founder of “Gatsby WP Themes” and is super passionate about the building Gatsby themes for WordPress AND Headless CMS.  So, of course, after discussing a bit about her background and journey, we dive headlong into a discussion about Headless Development! Find out the Pros and Cons having a site built using a Headless architecture.  Who’s this for and what is possible today?  What’s the future look like?  I know I learned a lot from the conversation.. and I believe our conversation hints at the future of how websites are built.  Enjoy!

My guest today is Jennifer Denney - her second time on the show!  This is a relatively focused episode around the topic of business reviews and planning.  She talks about her philosophy around end of the year reviews and what she things of them. This takes us into a fuller, more robust approach to year round planning which takes into account a great number of things including the ever changing landscape and team involvement.  And there's something just as important as what to planning what to do - I'll keep that secret so you're encouraged to dive into this dynamic episode!  Enjoy!

Today's another solo episode.  First, I dig into my efforts around improving this podcast and my video/audio.  Just because I can code and am a web developer, doesn't mean I'm good at THIS! haha..  But I am learning and working hard to slowly improve over time.  A big issue for me, even though I have a decent mic, is background noise and static.  But hopefully I'm resolving that! Beyond that I talk about working on your business, expanding what I'm doing on YouTube, consistency and some recent agency lessons!  I think this could be a great new segment on my solo episodes...  pulling apart and talking about recent lessons in my own agency -- from the trenches!  Enjoy!

In this episode, I talk about a couple business topics.  Have you ever tried to go paperless with your notes?  If you are like me, you like to take notes on notepads.. not just typing them into the computer.  I have been using a solution for years and introduce you to a new way to do it! Scannable and searchable. I talk about some new Twitter friends, my end of the year review.. more about our focus going into 2022.  Hint, networking is going to be a bigger focus.  And look out Milwaukee market.. here I come. :)  I also talk puppies.  We recently had the big decision about if we are ready to introduce a St. Bernard puppy into our household.  What did we decide? And I close with a touch on some WordPress stuff.. and the "Always Learning" mindset.  Enjoy!

In this episode I'm joined by Lorraine Ball.   Lorraine has an amazing story and shares her journey from 20 years in corporate America, running her own agency for 19 years before selling it to what she does today - podcasting and training. There are a lot of lessons within. We talk about motivating teams to meet big goals.  We are walked through an experience while working for an insurance company where she rallied the employees around a BIG goal.  She was told it couldn't be done, but this is the story of how she didn't listen.. and got it done!  And those lessons were carried over to her own business and building an agency. We also touch on other topics including social media, processes, systems.. and a surprise topic at the end related to agencies.  One that I have a special interest in.  Worth the listen!  Enjoy!

In this episode, Al Wagner joins me to talk business and networking.  Al has built a sizeable payroll business called TruPayroll - they are located in 24 states.  He's certainly an authority on building businesses and, the topic we'll talk a lot about, networking.  A bulk of his business stems from his networking efforts. Like we do with all our first time guests we start with his journey to becoming an entrepreneur; what influenced him.  We talk about how he built his practice and how his payroll business grew out of that - hint, networking helped!  On the topic of business networking his talks about the best way to approach it to maximize your results.  Building relationships first is a big part of that.  Tons of nuggets in this one and some great takeaways.  Enjoy!

In this episode I touch on a couple of business topics related to clients, products and services.  We start off by discussing the 'added value' service called 'Teaching'.  While some providers are built to just get the job done with minimal communication, there's another side to that coin.  You can help a client solve problems, execute on their website's roadmap, but also communicating what's happening with the site - where the problems lie or what happened.  Operating under the principle that the client needs to have at least a general understand of the framework their business generates revenue on, where pain points lie and helping them develop a roadmap to a better site, has been a huge value. I also talk about diversification.. from making sure your agency has more than one client and/or doesn't rely on one giant revenue source to branching out into other things like products or affiliate marketing.  And then we land on creating products that are complimentary to your other services or products.  Enjoy!