The Builders

Doland White is back with another great conversation around building teams. If you're run a business or agency for any length of time, you may find yourself in a position where you need to consider how you might grow or scale your team. But what does that mean? What is the difference betweening scaling and growing your agency or business? What is elasticity ad how does that play a role? He starts by defining the 3 dimensions of a team.. From there we both share stories, he extracts lessons from them.. and we benefit from his decades of experience building teams. 100% worth a listen if building teams is a thing for you and your business!

In this solo episode I dig into two topics that, when combined, form a powerful foundation for your marketing and getting more business.  The first topic is 'discovering your competitive advantage'.  Knowing what sets you apart can play a big role in how you attract business.  And sometimes, it's not something you know up front; sometimes it develops organically as you work with customers or clients. Then I discuss 'defining what you do'.  You could decide that you are a jack of all trades and do everything and anything.  But I'm willing to bet that if you define what you do and limit yourself, you'll do so much better!  That doesn't mean you just say 'no' or don't help that customer or client.  That's what strategic partnerships and referral business is for!

If you're building an agency or business, this episode is for you. Besides revealing my 5-10 year vision for my agency, I delve into how my web design business has developed. Any time we release a service or product it can end up being something we didn't anticipate.. my agency has been the same way. But as I talk about in this episode, that doesn't mean we let go of our initial vision. You adapt, take advantage and then circle back! I also talk about my current products and my suite of products I'm releasing later this year or early next year. At the heart of this new product is the goal to help agencies and freelancers; to provide them a toolkit.. so, if you are one of those two things, exciting things coming! Enjoy!

I'm joined by Widmaer Telisma in this episode.  Wid, as we call him, currently runs a successful web marketing agency in Montreal (Canada).  Him and I have a very similar story these past 15 or so years; in fact, he had joined one of my memberships back in 2007.  That is where I first met him hanging out in my community and forum.  We both started our days online doing a wide variety of things to make money.  In the early days we did a lot of affiliate marketing, PPC (AdWords), some Adsense and so much more. But today we have another parallel.. he followed the path of starting his own marketing agency which he's been doing successfully for the past 5 years; as you know, I run a web design agency.  We talk about his journey, common experiences and touch a variety of topics related to building and managing an agency.  I hope you join us.. Enjoy!

In this solo episode I dig into telling stories to sell your personal brand, services and more.  Learn how I incorporate stories into my business..  how to connect stories from your past into a conversation that helps 'soft' sell.  Learn the types of stories you can tell and how to deliver them. Stories are things we tell verbally.. but we are also telling a story with the content we spread across the web.  Your websites, social media and other avenues all work together to tell the story of your brand.  Being your authentic self, telling the good and the bad stuff and curating your stories over time is powerful and will help you attract more business.  Enjoy the episode!

I get to be a nerd today and get excited about a WordPress plugin!  I've grown to love Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) over the past few years running my web design agency.  In the past I didn't want 'another plugin' and I created a lot of custom code that leveraged WordPress' core features (eg, metaboxes and the customizer). Today though, I reach for ACF more often than not.  In this podcast I tell the story around the transition, the influence Hexater themes had on my approach to themes, how I broke from that, how I now use it when I'm building custom themes for clients.. and dig into the plugin itself a bit and why I find it such an important solution in my toolkit.

I'm joined by Matthew Biggar in this episode.  Listen in as we discuss video, social media, building brand, audiences and more!  Are you interested in how you can leverage video in your business?  Then this IS the episode for you.  That's his speciality! Matthew's been using video and teaching others how to use video for years!  He's had his own production company and in recent years pivoted and started his own YouTube channel.  We discuss playing the long game, building audiences, we touch on analytics, how to tie all your web properties together and so much more.  Check it out!

An episode about building a podcast on The Builders Podcast...  need I say more?  As with all the content we talk about on this podcast, I'm talking from the trenches; talking to what I'm doing and have experience with.  The past 20 episodes has been a journey.  I've learned a number of lessons, have a pretty good feel for what we're doing now, the benefits.. and I'm ready to share my experience so far and some lessons. Buckle up as I dig into the 'why'.  Why I still am doing solo episodes (like this one) while still doing guests, why I keep things simple (hint: avoiding stress points).  I talk to the value I'm getting from having guests.. more importantly the value my listeners get!  Also I dispense some lessons.. starting a podcast and keeping it simple.  Enjoy!

Join me for a discussion with Jenney Denney.  She's been doing digital marketing for over 15 years, runs an agency and has a lot experience and knowledge to share!  We get to know more about her, the journey and how she landed where she is today.  What influenced her, what guides her... We also talk about her experience with virtual teams.  She's lead large teams in virtual environments; her first team in 2006!  Before many companies even thought about it.  So I asked her about her experience with that and what tips or insights she might be able to offer.  We also talked about starting and building a business in general.  I found her REALLY inspiring.. I hope you get a chance to listen in! :)

Join me for a discussion with Shoumo Ganguly.  Shoumo is a business consultant and expert on the topic of business models.  With a long and storied career with many large corporations (from IBM, projects with Toyota and a long stint at PricewaterhouseCoopers) he's got a lot of experience and insights to bring to the table. As I do with all my guests in our first episode, we get to know him.. he tells his story from his roots in India, to the story of his career and his arrival in America in 1999.  He walks us through what's influenced him and what led him to starting his own consulting business. Then to cap it off we dive into his ideas around Business Models.. how he's take things he learned in the corporate world and molded it, boiled it down for small businesses.  If you're starting a new business or building one, there are some great nuggets in this episode. Don't miss it!