Disclosure: Scott and Abstrakt Marketing are partners of The Rise To The Top, which makes them extra awesome.

A helping hand in the marketing world. Although the “DIY” tools are out there for entrepreneurs and marketers, nothing beats experience from an entrepreneur who has gone through it all. And that is Scott Scully. Scott, who has been on the show before, is the founder of Abstrakt Marketing which is a new approach to the marketing world focused on increasing sales (seriously!).

Scott is an entrepreneur who helps entrepreneurs. The big lesson here is know your DNA. What are you good at and where could you use some help? There are only 24 hours in the day. If you aren’t … Read More »

One month ago, we kicked off a contest to give away an “App Dream Package” to a lucky entrepreneur looking to maximize online video courtesy of Widget Realm. Why? Practicing what we preach. Here on RISE I often talk about the benefits of online video and creating awesome video content. But for you to show your talent you need the right tools. So we teamed up with Widget Realm who is the leader in creating some amazing tools for content creators.

The winner receives:

-A Desktop App (a downloadable video player for your audience to put on their Desktop)

-A TV App (in partnership with Yahoo! Connected TV which takes your online content and streams to a variety of TV’s … Read More »

One second with Jessica Kim and you will be hooked. She is creative, high-energy and inspiring. Her company, Babbaco -a unique line of baby products, is doing many things right led by Jessica. She is creating content. Making a name for herself. Adding a whole lot of personality. Having fun. And selling a great product.

Sounds good doesn’t it? The goals of many interviews on RISE are to entertain, inspire, have fun and of course learn something (hopefully many somethings) that you can use for your business and in this interview we chat about her story and rise, keys to brand personality, growing your business, mompreneurs and many tips for you.

You can hunt down Jessica on Twitter and also … Read More »

Personal branding. It isn’t fluff. It is critical to any and EVERY entrepreneur. All of us.

Why? Because businesses come and go, but brands last forever.

And yes, you are a brand. You stand for something. I kicked out the question on Facebook and Twitter: If you could describe your personal brand in three words, what would they be?

A collection of the responses is below and feel free to leave yours as well.

With every business niche, there is a clear cut master of industry and that is Dan Schawbel. Dan has been called a “personal branding force of nature” and has a slew of things related to his passion: Personal Branding Blog, Personal Branding Magazine, … Read More »

A little bit different today.

A little switch up today. Since there have been a lot of emails, Facebook posts and Tweets with random business questions…I figured I would shoot it a little differently today.

Here are a few of the questions addressed and thanks to everyone for submitting:

Scott Bradley via Facebook: In your opinion, what is the best way to use social media to generate a positive ROI for a company such as a manufacturer who sells a a product direct to consumers?

David James III via Facebook: How do you get a new blog started meaning how do you get it noticed by enough people?

Giangbiscan via Twitter: David, how do you determine pricing … Read More »

This clip is from Great Day St. Louis on CBS KMOV 4 where I talk monthly on hot topics in technology and business.

Ahhh blogging. Probably the BEST opportunity there is right now in the do-it-yourself marketing and promotion world.

On Great Day St. Louis, I discussed the very basics along with some of my favorite St. Louis blogs including Urban Review STL and MyMommyManual.

Even though there HAS to be a better name for it. To me, blogging just sounds relatively old school because of the ways blogs “were.”

Blogs used to be places where:

-Teenagers would only write random thoughts.

-It was not viewed as interesting simply a journal.

-All business blogs were press releases and updated maybe … Read More »

Wow 50 shows in! Hooray. OK, enough celebrating.

Disclosure: Gateway Business Development is a partner of The Rise To The Top. Also, I use them personally to generate leads for sponsorships and partners.

Common entrepreneurial problem: You start a company. You have to do EVERYTHING. I mean everything. And then at some point you can’t do it all anymore. So you have a few options:

#1: You can cry (I did cry once).

#2: You can hire. And some people swear by this. It isn’t for me right now because I’d rather create content than manage people. Plus, it can be expensive and time consuming for young companies.

#3: You can find the right partners that have skin in … Read More »

Exclusive Interview with David Heinemeier Hansson from 37 Signals , creator of Ruby On Rails, co-author of the amazing new entrepreneurship book Rework (Amazon Link).

There are few better to learn lessons on entrepreneurship and marketing than David Heinemeier Hansson and that is exactly what we dive into in this interview.

David and 37 Signals (a great software company with products such as Basecamp) are rewriting the rules of entrepreneurship. One by one. And not in theory. In practice. (if you want some fluff, you know what to do…go pet a bunny).

Taking on the cliche rules such as:

“Bigger Is Better”

“You need to have a really fancy, detailed business plan.”

“You have to shoot for being … Read More »

Disclosure: This post is REALLY transparent. 100% naked. Fluff-free.

So, who noticed in the bottom right side of RISE (above “View Our Sponsors”) that banner ads were removed?

Pause.

Wait for it.

I bet pretty much NOBODY.

Why? Because for lack of a better term, banner ads suck. They have really low response rates (way less than 1%). And are often annoying.

More importantly, Nothing is worse than NOT practicing what you preach or practicing what you actually DO. Meaning, I would never advise anyone to buy a banner ad and I talked about the soon-demise of static ads in the 10 Big Marketing Predictions For 2010. Also, I NEVER click banner ads. I just don’t.

But this isn’t … Read More »

This video is part of the 101 Marketing Strategies series on RISE which includes real-life examples, strategies, tips, tricks in more. Things are working. Fluff free.

The idea behind this video is based on what you are seeing online right now and where we are moving towards in the future: Businesses as media sources and publishers

People are abandoning the old school “tell people how great their product is” mentality and shifting towards one based around useful content. Why? Because it is helpful and it works. It puts your customer first because honestly no one cares about your product. People care about some mix of being helped, alleviating a pain, solving a problem, being entertained, etc.

This shift creates a … Read More »