I tried a few online services before settling with one suggested by my sister in Texas – Elevation, based in North Carolina. Pastor Steven Furtick just connected with me, as he did many others. Their church actually grew during the shut down, and one sermon in particular caught national attention.

Like many people, I struggle with seeing myself and my true identity as I see my seemingly more successful, happier friends posting online. But I can’t put the blame on them – I am just as prone to post only positives on my social media channels.

And not just to make myself look better – sometimes you don’t speak your mind for professional reasons, or you share positives to maintain good relationships, or because of contract stipulations, or any number of reasons. I personally try, as much as I can, to not complain, and only post positive, uplifting things, in the hopes that it helps others.

As business owners, or when we represent a business online, we can be just as prone to curating only positive content. Only good news, only positive vibes, nothing that can make us look bad or diminish our apparent value.

Yet…

It’s a Trap!

I can point to hundreds of articles online that vouch for the necessity of being as authentic and genuine as possible online. And they’re not talking about people, but about businesses. As far back as 2013, credible marketing and business analysts have pointed out that authenticity is more important than ever. And I have to agree.

Now more than ever, your customers need to see that there are real people behind a business; that sometimes mistakes happen. That the best laid plans are sometimes not followed – and even if they are, often still go awry.

Sometimes, you have to be willing to admit that nobody’s perfect. That the cobbler’s children have no shoes. And as bad as that sounds – it actually helps build credibility. Disclosing these truths may be painful, but sometimes it’s exactly what is needed.

Lessons From the Trenches

One of my favorite examples is from the other industry I work in. Streaming giant Netflix reports their subscriber numbers, good or bad, every quarter. They could just report this information to their shareholders and it would inevitably leak anyways. But as much as Netflix guards certain information – like total viewers of any particular show or movie – they do share some stats freely with the media. Even if they are not in their favor. Most recently, they noted that growth was lower than they had projected.

Of course, the knowledgeable industry insiders did what they always do – proclaimed that the bubble had burst, that Disney+ or HBO Max were stealing viewers from Netflix, or that we had reached a market saturation point. I’m sure Netflix knew those headlines were coming. As I said, it’s not unexpected, cause every time numbers dip, that’s the anthem.

But can I tell you a secret? Netflix is okay with those headlines, and releasing the data that’s interpreted that way. Because even when their numbers are down, or under projections, they know they will bounce back. They have data that confirms it.

Just like the big money men in 1929 invested more when the stock market crashed, Netflix can point to their charts that show their numbers always increase – in the long term. For them, the streaming race is a marathon, not a sprint.

What’s more, Netflix is still controlling the story. By being transparent, even when the industry insiders try to knock them down a peg, they show confidence. They don’t pretend everything is perfect. Yes, numbers are down – but guess what, the company is still generating buzz.

That whole, P.T. Barnum ‘no bad publicity’ thing? It’s sometimes very true.

Blessings in Disguise

When you’re honest and embrace your failures as well as your successes, you are telling your story. Your authentic, real, and trustworthy story.

Every failure becomes part of the foundation, a stepping stone towards continued success. We all know the aphorism, “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” but we want everything to be perfect now. I know it sounds counterintuitive, so let me repeat it again. Being transparent about your failures builds credibility with your audience – your current and potential customers.

Because just like Netflix, we need to look at the long game. Minor setbacks are just that – minor. By ignoring missteps, or sweeping them under the rug, we betray some of the confidence our clients put in us.

Do your customers want to be the ones whose ball you dropped? Of course not. Nobody wants that. They prefer that your interactions with them – your products or services are as flawless as possible. Be open that you – like everyone – has fallen on your face a time or two. But, despite that, you got back up, and continued to work to deliver as promised. They won’t see the failure as much as they see the perseverance.

Perseverance has value. So does a track record. When you combine those with transparency and authenticity in your message – you’ve got an advantage over your competitors.

The Story Behind the Story

You may be wondering how I settled on the topic for this week’s blog. I’ve talked numerous times about drawing from your own experience when creating content. I just did a long series on content creation, leading to a push to an event that we at Grow the Dream were hosting on the first Saturday in June.

If you didn’t sign up, you might not have noticed – but many of our clients are already aware… That event, the Strategic Marketing Workshop for 2021, did not happen as planned. There’s no one reason, several factors, some within our control, some outside of it, collided, or coincided, and we had to postpone the event indefinitely.

I’m not happy to be telling you this. It wasn’t pleasant to inform the people who had signed up for the in-person event that we were forced to cancel. It was necessary. We’re shifting gears, recalculating, and looking at several options. And I feel comfortable telling you this, because our ideal clients are often in a similar position.

As entrepreneurs, we often have to adjust, reconsider, be very adaptable and agile in our approach to business. For some of us, that’s when we flourish. Heck, some small business owners repeatedly put themselves in troubling situations because that’s how they get the dopamine flowing. They love solving problems – even if they are of their own making.

We get it. And just like you, we aren’t stopping. We might be offering different services – maybe returning to our roots, maybe charting a new, less traveled path. We’ve done it before – so we know we can do it again. And just like our timeless marketing principles, we’ve thrived doing it in down times and good times.

The Road Goes Ever On

We hope you’ll take this journey with us. If you had signed up for the Strategic Marketing Workshop, we’ll keep you informed via email, in addition to what you see on this blog. But regardless of where you stand, we’re moving forward.

We’re going to keep serving our clients and finding new ones, just like we teach them to do. We will persevere. We will keep reaching for success. If you’d like to find out how you can be a part of that success, I hope you’ll reach out.

As I’m fond of saying every week, we built our business helping other small businesses succeed and expand. That continues to be our mantra and our commitment. Let’s Grow the Dream together!

I’m not going to rehash all of the particulars. I just want to look for a moment at bare facts. The emotions of this ‘adventure’ have been all over the place and in many ways have distorted our perception of time. While it seems so much has changed, and so many things have happened, this apparent lifetime-length journey really has only been 18 months.

Even though it has only been 18 months, because of these seismic shifts – Coronavirus, social changes, political upheavals – our world will never be the same. It’s not just a feeling. We literally have either stunted the growth of or rapidly advanced many expected developments. And regardless of how you feel about it, as small business owners, you need to adapt – and there is a lot less time for dithering or thoughtful consideration.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t take the time to make an informed decision. But you absolutely need to adopt a strategic approach to your business – and you need to do it quickly. Otherwise, it’s way too easy to get overwhelmed by the options, the decisions, and to lose sight of the future.

We’re in a brave new world. Even the futurists have lost track of what’s coming.

But there is good news.

While there are new decisions to make and approaches to consider, the principles of small business strategy are still the same as they were decades ago.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

You may be approaching your business as more of a remote entity. Yes, you may be employing more gig or freelance workers from all parts of the country. More of your business may be online than ever before. And, sure, Google is changing their algorithm one more time.

Oh, yeah. Did you miss that? It was supposed to happen this time last year, and the folks at Alphabet opted to delay it in light of everything that was happening. But it’s still coming – it’s on the horizon now, and businesses everywhere are scrambling to prepare.

If it feels like you’re suddenly overwhelmed with too many things going on, you’re not alone. That’s kinda been the theme of these past eighteen months – scrambling. Trying to keep up. Working to adapt. Trying to do anything. But most importantly, trying not to do the wrong thing. Cause there’s just not time, right?

We talk about strategy a lot at Grow the Dream. Not just in these articles I post every week, but overall strategy. Strategy for our small business. Finding ways to connect and communicate. Are we helping others? Can we assist ourselves?

There’s an old English idiom: “the cobbler’s children have no shoes.” And we struggle, like many businesses, wondering if we’re helping or educating others on our principles, at the expense of not following them ourselves.

We love to help entrepreneurs define and share their stories – but we need to share ours too. Our success is a direct result of us helping your business succeed.

Brass Tacks

I could go on for a few hundred more words (and have in the past) justifying and explaining why companies in general, and especially small businesses, need to adopt a strategic approach. But I know who our target audience is. I know that they will take action when informed of what they need to do. Even if they sometimes often wait ’til the last minute.

There’s a reason I waited until today to do this article. And a reason for last week’s call to action. Last week I needed to make you aware that an event was coming. Today, I’m banging the drum, letting you know – sign up, because it’s only a couple of days away.

It might feel random and precipitous. It might feel like that moment when the preacher is giving a message and it seems like he’s staring into your soul and his words are only for you. I’m all about letting God work – but the twinge you feel in your stomach is the result of well-executed strategy.

I wish I could invite everyone to this – but we are limited in space and time. So if you live and work in the Sarasota-Bradenton area – or you’re willing to get up early enough to drive there – I have a special treat for you.

Saturday, June 5, 2021 (yes, this weekend), Grow the Dream is hosting a face-to-face strategy seminar & workshop. You’ll learn all about that Google update and how to leverage it for your business. You will learn how to tell your story – by actually working on it in the moment. You’ll get hands on literal experience as David G. Johnson deconstructs one of the participants’ website – maybe even yours – and shows how to make it work better. And we’ll even do some social distance networking.

Now Is The Time

I know your inclination is to wait, to be cautious, to get to it tomorrow after you’ve thought about it. I get that – I am probably more guilty of uber-overthinking everything than most. But as I’ve mentioned, the workshop is only a few days away. The Google changes are right on the workshop’s heels.

I have two quotes by my desk. One is anonymous – “When there is a hill to climb, don’t think that waiting will make it smaller.” The other is from the Biblical book of Habakkuk. It seems to contradict the first one, because it mentions waiting for the appointed time. But the first part defines the waiting – write down the vision, that he may run who reads it.

My deepest desire is to motivate people with my words. I want to help as many incredible, world-changing small businesses succeed as I can – and that starts this week with our “Strategic Marketing Workshop: 2021 & Beyond.” If it helps convince you to attend, breakfast is even provided!

It’s time to get back to business, and that means getting ahead of the changes – online or otherwise – that are coming. It means knowing and telling your story effectively. You owe it to yourself, your family and the people whose lives you hope to change with your business to be there.

The future is now. Don’t be left behind. Sign up for the workshop today. Let’s Grow the Dream together.

Return on Investment.

And if you’re more of a creative type like I am, you may have grumbled a time or two (or sixteen) about the difficulty of quantifying the ROI on an artistic venture. My go-to for those arguments is a quote by author Kurt Vonnegut:

“The arts… are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous reward.”

Unfortunately the people holding the purse strings usually want a more monetary return on their investment. So these days I point them to the ubiquitousness of Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, etc. – the services that got us through the pandemic shutdown without losing our sanity or murdering someone – all filled with creative endeavors. Pieces of art that the platforms have (and continue to) pay a pretty penny for.

But that’s not what we’re looking at today. While we’ve all considered ROI, for the money lenders and our retirement accounts, I’m betting most small business owners haven’t considered the corollary: the Cost of Inaction.

What Are You Waiting For?

I can tell you, from my time educating people about retirement options, that bankers and investment specialists also focus on the flipside of ROI – COI. The most poignant example is the one where you take a look at how compound interest works. A dollar properly invested at age 20, even if it’s never touched again, after 10 years is worth nearly 100 times what investing $10 is at age 30. Even during the recent recession.

Stock Brokers and Mutual Fund salesmen are fond of pointing out that when the stock market crashed in 1929, the people who survived and thrived in the Great Depression were those who didn’t panic. While the average consumer was pulling their money out of investments and savings and loans, the Rockefellers and Carnegies “let it ride.”

Opportunity Cost is defined as “the cost of an alternative that must be forgone in order to pursue a certain action. Put another way, the benefits you could have received by taking an alternative action.”

Opportunity cost can be positive or negative. Cost of Inaction is the negative side. In Tim Ferris’ “Fear Setting” exercise, he calls the Cost of Inaction possibly the most important consideration you can take. For him, understanding the emotional, physical and financial costs for you and the people in your life is what truly drives us to take the uncomfortable action that moves us out of the status quo.

Put simply, every choice is in fact two choices. Every time you say yes to one thing, you are saying no to something else. And every no is really the choice to prioritize another yes.

Investing Your Time

In many ways, building credibility and visibility online is like investing for retirement. We don’t have an exact formula with marketing like they use in calculating compound interest, but it’s a similar mindset. The more you do now, the more your results will build on each other. The longer you wait, the smaller your potential returns could be.

Brokers will also tell you, the more consistent you are at putting away a few dollars every week, the more your investment will increase, not just compounding, but growing exponentially.

And just like investing for the future, consistently producing valuable, actionable content blog posts will exponentially grow your search engine visibility – regardless of how often Google changes their algorithm. Consistently providing extra worth to customers and searchers boosts organic search traffic. Adding value will always yield a profitable return.

Trust Doesn’t Rust

I’ve written extensively on the fact that 99% of the time, you won’t make a sale from a first visit to your website. In nine out of ten cases, searchers will never return to your site after the initial visit. I wrote those articles a few years ago, and I think if someone studied it, those numbers may have adjusted slightly since the pandemic began, but for the point I’m making they’re still valid.

You exchange valuable information like Lead Magnets for the potential customer’s contact information. That way you can keep in contact with them on a regular basis and when they’re ready to make a decision, hopefully you’re top of mind.

Online, there are seldom opportunities to do the old Tom Hopkins sales presentation to build company credibility. Even if you tried, people don’t have the patience for it, and often distrust the presenter, even if they appear interested. But every time someone visits your site and finds the answers they’re looking for, it adds to your trustworthiness in their minds.

The more often, and more consistently you provide value to the people who find you on search engines, the more you build credibility. And it’s an even stronger, more emotional connection, because they’re making the decision to trust you – not just taking your word for it. And as ol’ Tom has often told us, emotions make sales.

Investing in Emotional Impact

Psychologists tell us that as human beings we are more emotionally affected by losing something than by gaining something. We like to win, but we hate losing even more. To the point that if we worry that upsetting the status quo will cost us, we’ll sometimes ignore the fact that it can also greatly benefit us. Even with a track record of knowing change has been beneficial, we can still be stymied by the fear of loss.

The doctors call this “Escalation of Commitment.” But you might know it better by the economic take on it – the sunk-cost fallacy. Fear of losing, especially after we’ve invested so much time, money, resources, causes us to justify throwing good money after bad. To remix a couple of metaphors.

But as small business owners, we must resist this urge. Or better yet, counter it with emotional regulation. Emotional regulation strategies employ cognitive skills to redefine the meaning of a stimulus or situation. For example, both therapists and Weight Watchers employ and teach a technique called  “reframing.”

In therapy, the counselor helps you see things from a different perspective, presumably allowing you to put yourself in another’s shoes and see the behaviors you experienced as negative in a positive light. Weight Watchers, its own form of therapy, you look at why you overeat. In many people’s cases, the root cause is stress. So the program teaches you to look for alternative ways to relieve stress and try one of them.

The end result is the same – changed behavior due to a redefined emotional state.

Sacrifices Must Be Made

I know I got a bit technical with the last section, so let me bring it back around. Our topic last week was delegation and outsourcing.

There are only so many hours in the day. Even if you try to drive yourself 24/7, you’ll discover, as I did in college, that after about 72 hours of being awake, your brain starts sleeping for you, whether you want it or not. The phenomenon of microsleeps (mentally sleeping while awake) can occur in some subjects after just 48 hours without sleep. And after you pass 96 hours – awake for four days straight – your perception of reality is severely distorted.

Not the best situation for running a business.

Even if you’re the type of person who only needs four to five hours of sleep per night, you’ve still only got 19-20 hours to work and live life. Something sometime has to give. No one, no matter how talented, can do it all, not all the time.

One of the things we encourage our clients to do is to focus their attention and efforts on the things they do well. The places they succeed and get energized and do better than anyone else. It just doesn’t make sense to sacrifice your best time and effort – in areas where you are mediocre at best. I’m not saying that to be insulting, just asking you to face facts.

Spending time on one thing means less time for other things. Trying to do everything is not only untenable, it’s costing you the success your business could have. You’re wasting resources to save a few bucks – when it’s really costing you much more in the long run.

I can’t tell you how to run your business, but I can tell when you’re stretched too thin.

Faith Without Works is Dead

About halfway through this article, I repeated a phrase I’ve used often in the past five years of writing this weekly blog. You need to be “consistently producing valuable, actionable content blog posts.”

Valuable. Actionable.

I work very hard to research and write interesting, valuable content that will help your business succeed, even if you never once consider hiring Grow the Dream in any capacity. I do it for a variety of reasons. The most important being that I believe we should operate our business the way we recommend others operate theirs. So giving added value to every article is important to me.

But I would be remiss if I didn’t offer a call to action. In most instances, I try to be somewhat subtle. I encourage you to reach out, if you need help or want to learn more. I remind you that we built our business helping small businesses and entrepreneurs scale up their businesses.

But today, I want to, at the risk of coming off as “salesy,” be very direct. You could read every word we’ve written in these blog posts, going back nearly 20 years. You could memorize them. Tell them to others. But unless you take action – it’s all pointless. You get nothing out of it.

So I’m going to tell you very bluntly. We can help. Grow the Dream has taught and executed small business marketing strategies for more than 20 years. We get results. Our work is successful and we are very talented at what we do.

On June 5, 2021, we are hosting a LIVE, face-to-face Strategic Marketing Workshop.

This workshop will provide you with the tools you need to succeed in the digital marketplace – and how to manage your time and reduce your stress. It’s an amazing morning, breakfast and coffee provided, worth at least five or six times the amount we are asking from each business owner.

And we only have 30 slots.

We have to limit attendance due to COVID Safety Parameters, but also because we want to give you very detailed, hands-on attention. You’ll walk away with the top strategies and most up to date information. No question will be left unasked – and you’ll know exactly what steps to take next.

This is a program you cannot afford to miss.

This is your opportunity.  Don’t miss out. It’s time to take action.

Sign up here.

Perhaps you’ve heard of it. It’s called the Page Experience Update, and it involves the “core web vitals” that has website owners everywhere scrambling.

The timing for this change is tricky. Just as we’re all emerging from the pandemic in new and more meaningful ways, we all have to pay attention to our websites.

But if you’re like many people I’ve been talking with, you’re probably trying to figure out how to adapt right now… given vaccinations, changes announced by Florida’s Governor, and other factors that are in flux.

Frankly: it’s a perfect storm.

And that’s why we decided to put together an in-person workshop on Saturday, June 5th.

We’ll talk about Google and your online visibility, but more importantly: your strategy.

Even if you’ve updated your marketing strategy in the last year… it’s critical to revisit your plans and check your assumptions about the behavior of the people you’re marketing to.

This isn’t just about digital marketing: it’s about ensuring that your business or organization thrives in this rapidly-changing environment.

And that’s one reason I’ve teamed up with Cassandra Decker for this hands-on workshop. Her background as a cultural economic anthropologist doing research in the field gives her a unique perspective on how to collect the most important data and then turn that data into a compelling story that people respond to. This is something we can all use—both strategically and practically.

We’ve kept the cost low. Breakfast is included. It’s also limited to the first 30 people who register, so please check out all the details here right away.

I’ll hope to see you there!

Oh! If you want to bring a spouse, business partner, or colleague, you can do it for half price.

Thankfully, an entrepreneurial mindset is one of the best attitudes to have in the midst of this situation. I went into detail a few months back about setting your own schedule, and business owners have an affinity for this. Even if it’s a learned skill, it’s a step up from the average worker who is used to having someone else set their hours, breaks and routine. To succeed, entrepreneurs must master the discipline of making their own time – and being productive, even in a limited span.

But even business owners need a reminder from time to time, so we’ll start with the bedrock of all small business management…

Always Be Improving

The reason you’re reading this, or the latest book by Tim Ferris; watching Don Miller’s Storybrand Workshops; listening to Chris Do’s The Futur podcast or even the back catalog of our own Grow the Dream Show is obvious. When you stop growing, you die. Okay, maybe not the next day, but business owners and entrepreneurs know that self-development is crucial to success. And while you may not be able to attend “Commuter University,” you now have more time at home to devote to reading and listening, if you make it a priority.

Business owners are always learning and great leaders encourage their employees to do the same. The more you know, learn and understand, conceivably the more value you add to yourself and your business. In fact, this mindset was proven invaluable in the early days of COVID-19, as well as more recently, as more and more employees were furloughed or terminated from their positions.

Which leads us to our next tip…

Pivoting & Partnerships

Just as in the days of old, when ice harvesters were replaced by in-home refrigerators, many businesses faltered as the products or services they provided became obsolete, unsustainable or just shifted into other areas. The ones that survived were the ones who were able to do two things – pivot easily, and build partnerships.

In Columbia, a group of ragtag engineers downloaded ventilator plans from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Then they worked with local automotive and appliance plants to retool and build badly needed hospital grade ventilators from scratch.

I mentioned self-improvement earlier – one of the biggest markets to come out of the pandemic is online learning. And I don’t just mean Zoom and Skype and Google growing market share – though they have. I’m talking about educators, colleges, training programs and places like Teachable and Udemy are exploding with new webinars, courses and teachers. From high end to basic knowledge, just about anything can be taught and learned online now. And while parents have now been saddled with being their children’s co-teachers, studies are showing that some students do better in online classrooms than physical ones.

If you don’t already have a website, now is definitely the time. Even if it’s just a WordPress.org or SquareSpace site, it’s better than nothing – although it’s probably better to get spend a little to get something full-featured and flexible. An online presence today is no longer optional.

Get More Sleep – REALLY

As much as I personal embrace the legend of the sleepless entrepreneur, we need to discard this inaccurate trope. We also need to stop calling those who get a full seven to eight hours sleep lazy and unproductive. And while we’re at it, some of us have different circadian rhythms than the rest of the world. I work better rising mid-morning and burning the midnight oil. And that’s okay.

While some business owners look at things like higher risk of heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure as part of the cost of doing business, your family may disagree. And the CDC has plenty of data supporting the need for higher quality as well as quantity of sleep.

Although it may not surprise you that a study funded by mattress makers recommends more sleep, their science is sound. And it’s backed up by Forbes research. Incidentally, it also points out that you don’t have to bank all the hours during the night. Which is good, cause some folks can’t. In decades past, humans slept in two cycles. And there’s plenty of proof now that power naps during the day are advantageous to health and creativity.

So don’t neglect your sleep. But don’t wallow in it either.

Persistence is Useful

One of the most valuable resources for entrepreneurs is their bottomless well of persistence. Well, for successful ones, at least. Sure, some people fall into things – or at least it seems that way. But those of us on the front lines can attest that 90% of the time your success is directly correlated to how often you get back up after being knocked down.

In fact, persistence is one of the main things many schools cite as something they wish they could teach their students. Even outside of business ownership, people having a persistent, resilient mind and approach do better in school, at work and even in relationships.

Persistence is also crucial in reaching long-term goals.

Delay, Don’t Delete Your Vision

You’re probably aware of the “statistic” that more than half of new businesses fail in their first year. Now, imagine that 2020 is that year… But the truth is, that old adage is not entirely accurate. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately one in five new businesses fail during the first two years of being open. Almost half peter out in the first five years, and only 25% of new businesses make it to 15 years or more. And those numbers have barely changed in the past 30 years.

But, again, these are trying times. More so than usual. So no one is going to be surprised when hundreds of businesses that quietly shut down in March never re-open – if and when the states permit them to. The face of business and entrepreneurial spirit in America is changed – if not forever, then at least for a generation or two.

One of my favorite Bible verses is Habakkuk 2:3: “For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.”

If you haven’t started your business yet, this may not be the time. Especially if you still have some sort of survival job that keeping your mortgage paid and your family fed. If you’re in the midst of conducting a business, do what you can to keep it going – pivot and plan. If you were about to expand, perhaps wait – unless you have a product or service that is crucial right now.

My point is, don’t give up your vision – hold fast to it, knowing that this will not last forever. You are not running out of time – be patient and don’t lose hope.

Offer a Helping Hand

One of the more unexpected things to come out of the pandemic, especially given the divisive spirit that’s permeated almost every interaction – I’m looking at you, social media – is the overwhelming abundance of people giving back.

The earliest signs of generosity I recall were TV and movie sets donating the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE’s) that they bought to look authentic to hospitals across the country. Many studies show that donations to charitable organizations have kept pace – but spread out. More people are giving smaller amounts, while some usual donors have had to scale back.

Dozens of museums and art galleries started offering virtual tours – increasing exposure to culture and education. Theater groups large and small began running taped performances on free outlets like YouTube and Vimeo. Even some of the streaming services offered free options or lower subscription tiers. Podcasting rose another wave as hundreds utilized their creative talents to give back.

Earlier I mentioned the growth in teaching and online courses. Even more remarkable than its astronomical growth and use is the fact that so many are being offered for free, tips or donations. I honestly don’t think any of us expected things to go on quite this long, but there are still plenty of places offering lots of opportunities for free.

You might have heard of our latest venture – #StrategyStream. That’s where we teach the marketing principles that have gotten us and many clients through recessions and economic downturns. We’re giving them away – without even asking for your email or link click – every Wednesday at 1pm on our YouTube channel.

There are always ways you can give back to your community or clientele – and it builds good will as well as good relations.

When The Music Fades

At some point, we will emerge from this pandemic, shelter-at-home status. We don’t know when, we don’t know how. And sadly, in the past couple of weeks, numbers of infections and deaths have risen. But honestly, the COVID-19 situation is just the McGuffin, if you will. Much more important are the necessary strategies for being a better entrepreneur and person in general.

So, please, don’t look at these as just tips to survive this stressful, emotional time. They’re also building blocks for renewing our society. Entrepreneurs have, for good or bad, always led the way for change in our country. Let’s make sure this time, it’s for the better.

We could put our expertise to work to develop a new program to help small business owners. Small business owners and entrepreneurs helped us grow and build over the years.

The TL:DR is that every Wednesday, starting September 30, 2020, at 1pm Eastern time, we will host a free online training – the same training we’ve charged thousands of dollars for in the past. Now, you won’t get the same one on one hands-on experience that those folks paid for. But you will get actionable information that you can use to build a strategic marketing solution that will help your business grow – even during a pandemic – and continue to thrive after.

That’s the deal – free training from a team of digital marketing leaders, every week, in your home or office, for free. No strings.

If you’d like to learn more about the process and its efficacy, the details are below. But first, a story…

Beginnings That Can’t Be Despised

About 14 or 15 years ago, I was attending a seminar in Ft. Myers, Florida, presented by Michael Pink, of Selling Among Wolves. I had encountered Michael and his sales approach and products a few weeks prior at a motivational seminar presented by John Maxwell.

At the Pink seminar, I signed up for a special breakout session the following day with Justin Destoppelaire, of C Service Consulting, and David G. Johnson – the founder of Grow the Dream, which was still called Epiphany Marketing at the time. Both men impressed me and I had the opportunity to work with them several times over the years.

At the time, I was transitioning from being a full time employee in Law Enforcement to starting my own business in financial services to eventually leave me more time and income to pursue my acting and creative writing careers.

Life happens, as it often does, and in 2008, I drove 2 hours North to join a face to face class with David that focused on principles of digital marketing. This was during the early days of Facebook and Google – at least in the public’s eye. The Internet had transformed from a series of interconnected databases and chat rooms into a full-fledged, well, something – we were still figuring all that out.

One of the wildest (west) frontiers was finding and connecting with customers. Most businesses at the time had very little Internet presence, if any. But the ones that did were finding new markets and opportunity – often ones that translated to their brick and mortar stores as well as online.

Modern Takes on Timeless Truths

David, almost always on the bleeding edge of technology – or fairly close – had developed a digital marketing process that helped you target and attract not only more customers, but highly qualified, motivated-to-buy customers. And unlike some of the more traditional means of marketing and advertising, your past efforts helped to propel your business forward exponentially.

The process itself was (and still is) based on timeless strategic principles, but taken up a notch. And with practically unlimited, nearly free to acquire and utilize Internet geography, you would have been stupid not to take advantage of it.

I immediately invested in the process and, even using the most inexpensive tools (they were free), and what I learned in the 3 hour class, I was already ahead of the game. So I took a chance and went all in.

While the price of David’s expertise wasn’t cheap, it was absolutely worth it and the training program helped me build my own business, as well as those of several other clients and friends. One I even managed to multiply to the point that the owner sold it for more than three times what its value had been when I started.

I’ll be honest, we often get clients who question whether strategy applies to their business.

Grow the Dream has helped countless businesses – from floral shops to oral hygiene companies to pest control solutions to motivational training. I personally have used the process to build strategic marketing for third party Amazon booksellers, tax prep and accounting services, as well as non-profit professional organizations.

When I moved to Los Angeles, I took a lot of classes on actor marketing and writer audience building. They were perfectly fine, but badly flawed – because they taught a formula, rather than a process where you build a unique strategic approach.

One Size Fits Nobody

That’s the beauty of strategy. We don’t hand you a plan – we tell you what questions to ask yourself and your existing customers – that reveal the specifics for your business. Then you apply the timeless strategies to your unique needs.

Let’s be honest, we all know that the idea that one size fits all is a stretch – literally. You’re stretching into the clothes or to fit in the clothes. Sizes aren’t the same from brand to brand, let alone year to year. You need a pattern you can adapt to use however much cloth you need or want.

Okay, enough with the clothing analogies.

As I mentioned at the top, #StrategyStream is a FREE training program. A do it yourself approach to the marketing strategies we’ve taught and implemented at Grow the Dream for more than 20 years now. And if you need detailed, specific assistance, we can provide that too. This material is easy to grasp, sometimes a little harder to implement. That’s why we’ve worked with some clients for years. Because they still need and value our assistance to keep them on track.

The crazy thing is… we now have so many voices competing for our attention online – at least 10 times what we had back in 2008 – and these principles work even better now.

For everyone – we’ll walk you through our program for determining the strategic decisions you need to make and implement. We’ll show you how to figure out an action plan that you can actually act on – even if you’re stuck at home.

And we’ll give you a solid foundation for succeeding in the midst of the pandemic. A foundation you can construct that will help you build momentum now, so you launch higher and faster when the world returns to some semblance of normalcy.

Imagine the Benefits

What will your business look like when we reemerge? Will you have two or three times the numbers of qualified customers finding your business? Will they be qualified people who are looking for what you are offering and are ready to buy right away?

Will you know and be able to measure where the customers are coming from? Where they are finding you? Why they chose you over your competitors?

Instead of trying to ramp up after 6-12 months of doing next to nothing, with no income… You’ll start well ahead of the game. If you attend.

It’s only going to be an hour – maybe an hour and a half with questions afterwards. But we want to limit the impact on your day. And leave you ample time during the days between to start answering those questions and implementing the strategy as it grows and develop.

I hope you join us. Let us bless you with the best tools we’ve found for online marketing success. And you can be a blessing to others.

Why do I attribute some of my business success to it, you ask? Well… aside from keeping me awake so I can be productive, I frequently use an example from Starbucks when speaking to audiences and training small business leaders to get better results from their marketing.

With the Starbucks example, we are essentially trying to help business owners and those responsible for their marketing to understand this: people aren’t buying what you think you’re selling. Starbucks roasts coffee beans purchased from growers all over the world and sells them primarily by making drinks out of them in their local retail stores. What business is Starbucks in?

a. Coffee

b. Beverages

c. Legal Addictive Stimulants

d. Entertainment

Obviously, if Starbucks answered “A: Coffee” then they would probably have to sell for the lowest price possible. They would compete against anyone and everyone selling coffee. But Starbucks is most famously selling something more. There’s a full discussion of that over here.

Let’s Get to the Free Stuff

That illustration on coffee has helped a lot of business leaders grapple with and ultimately answer the question, “What are you really selling?” And when they realize that they’re selling something different than what their marketing has historically focused on, they realize they need help. That’s what has been great for me because that’s when they realize they need training on how to reach out and get new customers in the 21st Century.

That’s where the free stuff comes in. We’re launching a brand new training course that will begin next week. It’s called “The Secrets of Search Engine Rankings for CEOs, Owners & Executives.” If you’ve ever wondered why your business does or doesn’t show up at the top of page 1 in the Google search results, then this training is for you.

Here are some of the questions we’ll be answering:

• How does Google decide which websites to show on top of page 1?
• How can I find my website’s position if it’s not readily visible on a particular search?
• Do I really have to pay someone to be on top of the search engines or can we get there ourselves?
• What can I do to make sure that my site is moving up?
• How can I make sure I’m not getting ripped off with Search Engine Optimization (“SEO”) services?

This training will happen over the course of 3 LIVE webinars. Each will last approximately 1 hour. Here’s the deal: we will be recording this to produce a brand new product that will sell for $97.

I’d like to give you the opportunity to be in on this product absolutely free. Here’s how it works: anyone who purchases our Ultimate Small Business Growth Kit by Friday at 5pm Eastern will automatically be registered to attend the 3 live training sessions absolutely free! This is a priceless bonus! By attending some (or all) of the webinars live, you’ll have the opportunity to get your questions answered live during the training. People who only catch the recordings after the fact will obviously not be able to do that. So this a huge added value!

Check out all the details for the Ultimate Small Business Growth Kit here.

What Others Are Saying About “The Ultimate Small Business Growth Kit”

From December, 2010:
“A quick note to let you know how valuable your training has been to me! It has already helped me identify several key areas that need my attention to cause my business to flourish like I want it to. I am nowhere near finished the training but I have already identified and implemented some of the ‘techniques,’ as I interact with my customers. The results have been phenomenal! I have already made my money back with the orders I have captured as a result of your training.” (emphasis added)

From March, 2011:
“I wanted to thank you again for the services you provide through Epiphany. I have moved up to the first page of the Google search engine in as little as 3 months! One month ago I secured a $40,000+ contract with a vending manufacturer who found my company on Google. I was also recently contacted by another manufacturer who wants to send us all of his business … and yes he found us on the front page of Google. Don’t stop what you are doing. You are truly a blessing to the business community!” (emphasis added)

Sonya L. Thompson
First Choice Locators & Vending SVC LLC
Minneola, FL

I look forward to “seeing” you on next week’s training webinars! Be sure to purchase by tomorrow (Friday, September 30th) at 5pm Eastern in order to get in on “The Secrets of Search Engine Rankings for CEOs, Owners & Executives” absolutely free!

Happy Coffee Day!

Photo: LotusHead

Free Webinar June 30th: The Latest Tools for Attracting Local Customers

Do you sell your products & services to one or more specific local markets?

Have you convinced yourself that internet marketing doesn’t apply to your business because you serve a local audience?

Are you confused by all of the latest options available to get the word out?

Maybe you’ve wondered about:

• How Google “Places” (map listings) affect your Search Engine Rankings
• How to make Facebook work for your business
• How “Check-ins” via geo-social networks like Foursquare and Facebook Places can help you get more business
• How to deal with negative online reviews about your business

We’ve had so many business owners ask us these and other questions related to the unique challenges & opportunities available for getting more businesses in a local market, that we’ve put together a special free webinar this Thursday at 1pm Eastern replay here.

Who Should Attend?

If you own or manage one or more of these types of businesses:

• retail businesses of any kind (with brick & mortar locations)
• contractors & consumer services (plumbers, electricians, pest control etc.)
• medical practices
• even local B2B businesses

this event is for you. And best of all, we’re giving away this valuable information absolutely free!

In fact, we’ll have one of our existing clients live on the call so we can show you exactly what techniques you can use today to get results!

Space is extremely limited, so you’re going to want to RSVP early to make sure you have a spot check out the replay here.

All you need to attend is your computer (and a phone if your computer doesn’t have speakers). Reserve your spot right away! I’m looking forward to “seeing” you Thursday! 

The replay of this event will be available for a limited time. Be sure to watch it soon… we’ll be taking it down without notice. Hope you enjoy it!

Can You Grow Your Sales Quickly?

One of the most common questions I get asked when speaking to audiences of small business owners and salespeople who earn commissions is:

What can I do that will rapidly produce results for my business?

Now, I’ll be honest with you: I’m not usually a “quick fix” guy. I believe in strategy… and particularly, in consistently executing strategy over time to get results.

But sometimes, a business or salesperson finds itself needing new prospects or customers quickly. Yes… a well-formed, consistent strategy is great, but sometimes you need sales quickly so you can make it long enough to create and implement a longer-term strategy.

The truth is… I understand completely. I’ve created and owned multiple businesses, and sometimes you just find yourself in a tight spot.  I’ve been there.

When that happens, you know that with a bigger budget (or more time), you’d do some other things. But sometimes you just need to do something that gets results so you can create the budget (or time) to do more.

And that’s why I put together Fast Ideas to Skyrocket Your Profits & Sales Now.

Check out the details here.

This is something that’s especially designed for you, and it starts this week. To get on board in time, you’ll need to respond right away.

I’m looking forward to being in touch!

Committed to Growing Your Business,

David G. Johnson, Founder
Epiphany Marketing, LLC

What can you do to sustainably reach out?

You know it… and I know it. Offline marketing the way you’ve always done it doesn’t work. (Stick with me for a video clip about what is working.)

Direct mail response is down. Your hometown newspaper is quickly becoming your hometown leaflet. I’m willing to wager that more copies of your local yellow pages hit the recycling bin the day they got delivered than ever before. (And the ones that didn’t get recycled that day are proudly being used as doorstops — if they’re heavy enough!)

Most trade shows are ghost towns… and the ones that aren’t have attendees instead of buyers. Magazines and other print media have a little life left in them — especially when they’re highly niched.

So you’re in a small business. Either you own the business, or you’re responsible for marketing. It seems like you’ve barely had time to catch your breath. (Maybe you haven’t!)

What the heck are you going to do to find new prospects and customers?

How To Get Sustainable Marketing Results in Your Small Business

Recently a small business owner approached me. Nearly 2 decades ago, Becki bought an already successful florist shop from its original owner. She’s hard-working, professional, and full of ingenuity. She was referred by her hometown web designer. They had built her a functional and visually-appealing website almost 10 years ago, which they’d overhauled once since then. Every day Becki and her crew get new orders from their website.

But like you, Becki wasn’t satisfied with her results.

She was nowhere to be found in Google for the most important searches. Actually, using one of the tools in our bag of tricks, I found her site on page 112. Needless to say: no traffic from Google.

But Becki had already figured out that while she needed to solve that problem quickly, even that wasn’t going to be enough. She was astute enough to know that customers demand interaction — something that is prohibitively difficult in offline media and nearly so in most traditional websites. She recognized that she needed a Facebook presence.

Since a substantial percentage (I’m not going to share the numbers here just to protect her private business information) of her business revolved around weddings, she recognized that brides — especially the twenty-somethings — are using Facebook.

In short, here were the problems she faced:

• She needed to improve her Google rankings
• She needed to put her business on Facebook
• And perhaps most importantly… she needed a strategy and a plan to know what to do with everything to achieve sustainable ongoing results

After I met with Becki, I outlined a simple 3-step plan that would solve all of the above challenges and more. Within 2 weeks after we started working with her, her website was on page 2 of Google. We built out her Facebook presence, and she quickly began gathering fans.

Her ongoing maintenance strategy requires just minutes per week. Some weeks they even skip it completely (not something I recommend).

Just a few months later, Becki’s shop has 315 fans on Facebook. She’s received thousands of new visitors to her websites, and countless phone calls.

But Here’s the Kicker… Her Sales Have Multiplied

Becki told me yesterday that by the end of this month, she will have processed as many orders in the first 3 months of this year as she did in all of last year. Here’s what she had to say:

You can hear her whole story in a free webinar on Thursday, March 18th at 9PM US Eastern Time. Space is limited! Reserve your spot here right now. I’ll show you exactly how to do what she did!

Now… you may be saying, “I don’t sell products online.” No problem. At the very least, you can get your phone to ring (just like Becki did)… or whatever it is that you need people to do to get into your sales process.

Don’t wait! Register now even if you’re not sure you can make it. Talk to you soon!