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No one will argue the importance of creativity in marketing. Without powerful, fresh ideas, your strategies will fail. This is becuase there is such tremendous competition to be heard out there in your industry wilderness. Innovation is an extraordinarily critical part of marketing. Most people get this. They know they want creative designs, interesting messaging, and highly effective strategy. They want to build imaginative marketing infrastructure. Yet, when it comes to innovation in marketing, there is something even more important. Join Michael as he reveals one of the least understood elements of winning marketing strategy.

Most entrepreneurs get their messaging for their business all wrong. Many aren't totally clear on how to develop out their messaging. What is marketing messaging? Basically, your marketing messaging is the artful conveyance of all the value you provide to your customers...through words, visuals or actions. It's letting them know who you are, and more importantly, why they should care. It's extremely important. Because getting your messaging right...will make your marketing exponentially more effective. Join Michael as he shares an important insight on creating messaging that will increase your profitability. 

Many successful entrepreneurs make the very same mistake with it comes to marketing. This error, ultimately impacts their future success and causes them serious challenges down the road. If you can learn from their fundamental mistake, it will dramatically and positively impact your sales for many years to come. It comes down to having perfect timing when it comes to planting seeds of success. If you get this right in your business, you have a good chance of winning where too many others fail. Join Michael as he talks about one of the most critical elements of having steady and predictable revenue gains in your company.

There are so many business professors, coaches, and online courses teaching people the importance of the entrepreneurial mindset. So many of these teachings are centered around the simple, cheering persuasion of..."You can do it! Just do it! Go for it! You got this!" That's great...for you to get you started if you need that kind of encouragement. Yet...no one goes into business...just so they go into business. They go into business...because they want to win in business. And to win in business takes a totally different mindset. Join Michael as he shares how winning entrepreneurs think.

In marketing, there is a relentless parade of new innovations, ideas and viewpoints that are fresh and emerging in the discipline. From the most outlandish marketing strategies to the most sublime, they run the full gamut. And, of course, there are the hacks. There are always the hacks. Hacks are essentially, shortcuts...insider secrets, ways to get to the goal with a minimum amount of effort. For entrepreneurs and marketers, is breathlessly seeking out the latest hacks the best strategy to take? Join Michael as he explains the pathway of the marketing pendulum and how it answers that question succinctly. 

There are always going to be ebbs and flows in the world of business. Sometimes these highs and lows are only felt in your specific industry or with your particular lines of products and services. Other times, they are peaks and valleys in your own neighborhood, or city or country. And then there are those times of difficulty when the entire world is suffering a setback. It can certainly make you feel as the leader of your business as if there is nothing you can do to fight against these external fiscal pressures. However, there actually is something very proactive you can do to minimize the damage caused by these times of difficulty. Join Michael as he shares about recession-proofing your business.

Being in business isn't easy. Trying to onboard new clients and getting them on the pathway to success is difficult work. And, the challenge goes well beyond merely creating great services and products and supporting them with tremendous excellence. It would be great if that was enough, but the truth is it's not going to keep your customers from being frustrated. Even if you do everything right in your business from start to finish, you're still going to have customers who are frustrated and disappointed. It's sad, but true. Yet it also presents a surprising opportunity. Join Michael as he shares the gold mine of customer frustration.

For those who love making dinners, you'll know there is a old traditional way to see if your spaghetti is cooked properly. You carefully extract a strand of the boiling pasta out of the pot, making sure not to burn your fingers, and then you thrust the strand up to the ceiling or against one of the kitchen walls. Here's the spaghetti test. If it sticks, legend tells us, then the pasta is cooked. If it falls...well, you still have some cooking to do. Does it really work? Probably not. But there is a spaghetti test that is extraordinarily important for marketing purposes. Join Michael as he shares about taste testing with digital spaghetti.

Even if you're fairly new to entrepreneurship and only have a basic understanding of strategies to promote your business, you probably are familiar with the concept of content marketing. Content marketing is when you or your team share their expertise in the effort to draw attention to your products and services. It can come in a variety of forms such as Blog posts, videos, white papers, online courses, webinars, speaking engagements and, of course, podcasts. Evergreen marketing content, is designed to be content that has a long shelf life to it. Rather than doing a Blog post about something that will be old news in a few days, you're building content that will have value today, six months from now, and even six years from now. But, the real game changer for your marketing strategy? It's Four Dimensional Evergreen Content. Join Michael as he explains what this is and why it's so important.

If you're an entrepreneur trying to present your business to the world in a positive light then words are going to be essentially important. Not just the words you say, but the words you hear. Yes...you've got to have great messaging, you've got to be able to tell your story in a powerful, efficient and effective way. That's getting the word out about your products and services. Yet, equally important is listening and hearing what the market is saying about your brand. Join Michael as he shares three words every entrepreneur needs to hear.

You've probably seen this countless times. Sales presentations dripping with adrenalin and topped off with a vibrant call to action. Someone is selling an online course, or some type of investment opportunity, a radical new diet program, or some exciting new way to 10x or 100x your return on your investment. These opportunities are marketed with an impressive amount of glitz and vigor. Just a ton of hype and hoopla, to get you to convert...to sign on that dotted line. Should you use this approach for your marketing? Join Michael as he shares a strong answer to the question and explains why with the Law of Typicality.

The challenge with being an entrepreneur is that everything can suddenly be seeming so easy. It's all coming together. It's all blue skies with a brilliant sun. You're thinking: "I've got this. Marketing for my company is so easy. I just need to do what everyone else is doing...especially those who are having so much success." And these great times...can be great...until they're not. That's when you hear that knock on your door...the one you don't want to hear. You know who it is. The wolf has arrived. Join Michael as he shares how to protect your marketing from the wolf of hard times.

Marketing creates the pathway to business success and a key element of this journey is winning through sales. Without an effective sales strategy, you'll have a much more difficult time building relationships for your organization. And, ultimately people buy from people, so sales professionals are needed. This is especially true for higher ticket items like enterprise software, premium consulting contracts, and products like vehicles. You're going to need sales strategies in order to close these deals. Yet, it's one thing to have a high conversion rate and another to have thoroughly happy customers.  If you want both, you're going to need to understand the Sales Heat Factor. Join Michael as he explains how it works. 

A movie considered by many to be among the greatest every produced is Casablanca. It features the character of casino owner Rick Blaine played by Hollywood legend Humphrey Bogart. It's a black and white film from the 40's and it was released during a global crisis. It's a powerful story set in Morocco during the Second World War. Right after one of the most emotional scenes of the movie concludes, Rick shares a classic line, one of the greatest in film history. Join Michael as he explains how this famous line illustrates one of the most quintessential truths in marketing.

There are many misconceptions that get in the way of our maximizing our success with our businesses. These marketing missteps limit our opportunities, squelch our ability to exponentially grow, and can threaten our ability to even survive. One of the biggest misunderstandings when it comes to marketing is this idea of a "sales funnel". Dump all of your prospects into the top of the funnel, and watch as they work their way down to being ready to pull out their checkbooks and ring your cash registers. Surprisingly, this approach to your marketing can lose you sales. Join Michael as he shares the many doors of business success.

There are many businesses that have seasons. These seasons can be challenging when it comes to maintaining a steady stream of cash flow. There are those that thrive during the Holiday gift buying season and there are others, like accounting firms, that peak during tax season. There are all types of seasonality to businesses. Organizations can be impacted tremendously based on tourist seasons, geographic seasons, weather-based seasons and purchasing seasons. For businesses that have been in business a long time, they learn to survive by mastering the ebb and flow of supply and demand. Join Michael as he shares an important concept in keeping your cash flow flowing, even during the inevitable ups and downs of the year. 

There are many discussions surrounding the question of "What Is Most Important When It Comes To Marketing?" There are so many viable responses. Some will say, it's your branding....or your messaging...or your strategy or your careful execution of this strategy. Then there is design, product quality, customer service. Others would simply say the only thing that matters is sales.  Yet, perhaps it's time to challenge you with a different thought in what is one of the most important elements of marketing. Join Michael as he explains this precious gem.

One of the most critical keys to being successful in business is getting your marketing messaging right. What is marketing messaging? When it's done correctly, it lives and hopefully thrives in the minds of your best prospects and customers. It's a message that inspires them, that makes them feel part of your community and proud to use your products or services. Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs and inventors get confused about marketing messaging. Join Michael as he reveals a key insight to getting your messaging right.

There are five critical tools every business should have in their marketing department. This is true whether your company has a thousand employees...or if it's just you on your own. By tools, this means marketing software that can be used to tremendously improve the productivity, effectiveness and efficiency of your marketing efforts. Join Michael as he reveals the critical marketing tools that will help you rule.

There is nothing better for a sales conversation than when the prospect begins by saying, "We've heard really good things about you." It should be the core design of any effective sales model to include the power of word of mouth marketing. In fact, it's one of the most profitable and successful modes of marketing. Yet, too many entrepreneurs don't realize there are strategies to amplify these word of mouth referral streams in exponential ways. Join Michael as he reveals a hot tip for hyperscaling your referral streams.