Info

Focus Is Your Friend: How to double down on marketing that matters

Marketing matters, but some marketing efforts matter a lot more for your business than other efforts. If you want to learn the secrets of doubling down on what matters for your business, this is the podcast for you. Get advice from experts on how to focus on the marketing, events, PR, social media and email marketing that will move the needle for your business and brand. Stop trying to hope your resources are going to the right places and decide to focus on what matters, with Focus Is Your Friend.
RSS Feed
Focus Is Your Friend: How to double down on marketing that matters
2017
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2016
December
November
October


All Episodes
Archives
Now displaying: December, 2016
Dec 19, 2016

In our final episode of 2016, we look back at some of the best lessons learned from Marketing experts KQED’s Michael Lupetin, Evernote’s Greg Chiemingo, and PayPal’s Janet Ball. We also share a big announcement for how this podcast will be changing in 2017 so that we’ll be able to bring you much more valuable content.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Why most companies don’t actually put their audience first — and why they absolutely should (Michael Lupetin)
  • The 10 levels of audience engagement (Michael Lupetin)
  • Why you need to make a decision where to put your resources and why it’s okay if that decision doesn’t work out (Greg Chiemingo)
  • Why have to take enough time to figure out if you plan is working or not (Greg Chiemingo)
  • Why you need to listen to what your customers are telling you that they want (Janet Ball)
  • Why you can’t mistake intuition for marketing (Janet Ball)

Full interviews:

Ways to contact Michael Lupetin:

Ways to contact Greg Chiemingo:

Ways to contact Janet Ball:

Dec 16, 2016

This week we sharpen the saw with a few golden nuggets from InterviewConnections.com’s Jessica Rhodes’ interview. We also focus on why it’s so important to spend time doing things you love.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • The value of podcasting
  • Why you don’t need to have a big audience for your podcast to be successful
  • Different kinds of goals you can have with your podcast
  • My goal for this podcast
  • Why it’s so important to stick with your podcast after starting it
  • Finding a hobby that you love
  • Some hobby ideas if you’re struggling to think of them
  • “Writing That Works; How to Communicate Effectively In Business

Resources:

Dec 12, 2016

Jessica Rhodes is the founder and CEO of InterviewConnections.com, the premier Guest Booking agency for podcasters and guest experts, and she is the acclaimed author of RockThePodcast From Both Sides of the Mic!

Jessica is also the host of Interview Connections TV, where each week she helps her viewers rock the podcast from both sides of the mic. She hosts/co-hosts three podcasts: Rhodes to Success, The Podcast Producers and The Parenting Rhodes. The Podcast Producers was selected by Apple as a How to Podcast show in iTunes and has also been included in the syllabus for a course about podcasting and audio journalism at Western University in Ontario, Canada.

Jessica is has been a speaker at Podcast Movement, Podfest.us and Dream Business Academy. She lives in Rhode Island with her husband and two kids.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Why you should start a podcast
  • The steps you need to take to get a podcast started
  • Why anyone in your company can be your podcast’s host — even an intern — if they have the right voice for it
  • The equipment and software you need to host a podcast (and what you really don’t)
  • Why downloads aren’t the best barometer of success
  • Why you should interview your current clients (and where to find other guests)
  • What makes the content of a podcast great
  • Why marketing is the key to growing your audience
  • Why you don’t have to make your podcast your entire business to achieve success
  • Jessica’s three podcasts
  • How Jessica helps her clients get booked on podcasts

Ways to contact Jessica:

Resources:

Dec 9, 2016

This week we sharpen the saw with a few golden nuggets from EAT Creative Studio’s Renata Amaral’s interview. We also focus on why it’s so important to take your vacation.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Why you can’t create a real brand until you know who you are
  • Your logo is not your brand
  • Why your logo may need to change as your company DNA changes
  • Why you need to examine your brand every year or two
  • Bringing your brand to life with art
  • Taking a break with vacation
  • Why I took many months off a few years ago
  • Book recommendation: “Leadership and the Art of Conversation: Conversation as a Management Tool” by Kim H. Krisco

Resources:

Dec 5, 2016

To say Renata is passionate about branding and design would be an understatement. Anyone who is in the room while she talks about one of her many projects, or shows off a new design hot off the press will instantly feel it’s something more. And be careful, her excitement is contagious too. It’s palpable. It’s love, a real love for turning complex ideas into tangible and beautiful things. A deep admiration of the power to reveal elevated principles through smart design.

Since 2003, Renata Amaral has specialized in brand development and design, getting her start with some of the best agencies in Brazil such as FLAG and Ogilvy where she cut her teeth working in client services leading a team of creatives to deliver quality work to some of the world’s biggest brands. It was here where her love affair with branding started as she began to intensely study design and develop her own unique creative process.

A bit disillusioned by the status quo of the U.S. job marketplace in 2009 (as were most folks that year), she felt there must be a better way to both live and work, and wondered if the two really had to be at odds. The elusive work­ life­ balance always seemed to be a trade off where neither side wins. As most good books find their way to you at ju st the right time, Funky Business found its way to Renata that year and it inspired her to create a new kind of business, one that served the needs of its clients of course, but one that also inspired its employees, a place where people could do interesting work and still be authentic to who they are and what makes them truly happy.

These ideas prompted her to follow her entrepreneurial instincts and start her own business, EAT Creative Studio. EAT is a creative agency that helps companies tell their brand story through design, technology and experiential art. Through a thoughtful brand analysis process, they help companies unleash the strongest brand possible. Not forgetting about the ethos of happy and inspired employees, EAT has a unique organizational structure with no central office, which allows employees to live anywhere they want, where they feel the most engaged and inspired. Despite their distance, the team works closely together and get plenty of face­ ­to face time over Google Hangouts (and every other emerging platform of the month.) It’s this model precisely that has helped EAT retain top creative talent and produce the best work for their clients as their team pulls in inspiration from the global zeitgeist, living in diverse places such as Paris, Berlin, and Brazil. From their humble beginnings, with a little sweat and a lot of heart, EAT now works with some of today’s most exciting start ups and globally well­ known brands that are shaping the future of industries such as entertainment, gaming, music, fashion, and tech.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • What branding means to Renata
  • Why not caring is the biggest mistake you can make while branding
  • The process that EAT takes their clients through to starting the branding process where they get to know their clients’ audience
  • How EAT is able to focus on the right thing where there are so many different options out there
  • Mistakes that Renata has learned from and lived through
  • How Renata and the team at EAT stays on top of the changes in all of the different industries that they serve
  • How Renata’s emotional intelligence helps her deal with clients that want things that she has to say no to
  • How Renata knows when it’s time for a rebrand

Ways to contact Renata:

Dec 2, 2016

This week we sharpen the saw with a few golden nuggets from Elevator Speech’s Dave Yewman’s interview. We also focus on ways to get your stories out of your head every week.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Getting right to the point when you’re speaking
  • Why you need one hour of preparation for every minute that you present
  • “Be Bold. Be Brief. Be gone.”
  • Working on your storytelling
  • Taking 20 minutes at the end of the week to write down what you’d like to remember
  • Why you should hand write it instead of typing it
  • “Weekend Language: Presenting with More Stories and Less PowerPoint” by Dave Yewman and Andy Craig

Resources:

1