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 natural marketer, it is usually best to partner with one and focus on the the things YOU rock at and are good at.

Scott video blogs at the IdeaMachine365.com (which has REALLY good content and a lesson that you don’t have be nuts like me to do video. Scott is to the point and soft spoken).

In this interview Scott and I discuss how the Internet has changed marketing, how Abstrakt helps entrepreneurs, a new way to look at business plans and more. Enjoy!

Oh and as a special deal for RISE viewers (and it is a good one): A FREE sit down with Abstrakt to do an audit of your marketing and sales. No obligation or anything. I have a feeling they will turn on a light bulb or two for you. Just shoot ‘em an email or call.

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 from Samsung, Sony, Vizio and more)

-Mobile Video Apps: (iPhone, Blackberry, Android)

-Content Configuration And Management

-Video Encoding

…bottom line a HECK of a deal.

We had an overflow of entries and pitches sorted by Brian Powell, founder of Widget Realm and the winner (after much deliberation is): SocializeYourCause.org submitted by David Wells. Brian selected Socialize Your Cause due to their amazing vision and bright future.

For those curious, here was the “pitch” sent in by David:

I was excited to hear about this contest. I recently started a collaborative blog (http://www.socializeyourcause.org) focused on educating non-profit organizations on how to better leverage social media to further their cause.

Since launching last month, We have seen an enormous amount of traffic and feedback from the non-profit sector!

We cover a variety of social media and online marketing strategies that, quite frankly, a lot of these NPOs overlook!

We also have a Cause of the Week program set up to cover a new NPO each week and help spread their amazing stories to our audiences. Another perk of being selected as the Cause of the Week is free social media advice and the ability to tweet through our Non-profit Twitter Account @YouCanHelp to reach our audience(4800+ and growing!) for the week. You can see the NPOs we have covered thus far here http://www.socializeyourcause.org/category/blog/causeoftheweek/

The idea of using my knowledge of internet marketing & social media for good rather than profit had always appealed to me and I am hoping to make it a full time gig. Right now I am financing this endeavor myself and don’t have the funds to push for an awesome package like this from Widget Realm.

We have just finalized our content strategy for the upcoming quarter and have big plans to incorporate a ton of video content into the site. If we won this app package it would be simple incredible! The syndication that the package would enable would allow us to reach so many more people with our message!

Spreading stories through social media is an extremely powerful way to garner support for NPOs and causes around the world and we want to see more organizations doing so.

Thank you very much for your consideration and sorry we are right on the deadline! We have been swamped with a NPO Twitter Application we have been developing!

Sincerely,
David Wells
Socialize Your Cause

Thank you to everyone who entered (you guys and gals all rock!) and stay tuned for a new contest soon.

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 make sure to check out Babbaco.

This interview on RISE is brought to you by:

Johnny Londoff Chevrolet where you get supplier pricing (no BS haggling) for being a friend of The Rise To The Top. Johnny Londoff is a great business owner who focuses on relationships first (which is HUGE). You can check out my interview with him talking customer service.

MB Consulting Group. An entrepreneur helping entrepreneurs with IT. As opposed to hiring a IT staff (expensive) you can have your own experts on call to take care of all that geeky stuff in your business. Trust me, this will save your butt a lot of time and energy. Here is founder Ryan Mortland talking about the keys to outsourcing your IT.

Screenflow: I use Screenflow to turn my computer into shows and do video tutorials such as this on How To Create Amazing Side-By-Side Interviews With Skype.

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, his book Me 2.0 (amazon link), Personal Branding Awards and new extensions including Student Branding Blog.

In this chat, Dan and I discuss how he rose to success and tips for you and your personal brand. My hope is that his journey will spark yours (and your personal brand of course). Enjoy!

How would you describe your personal brand in three words?

Via Facebook:

Matt Haze: Intelligent Comedy. Period.

Emmanuel Arechiga: Explosive. Energy. Enthusiastic.

Ralph Pfremmer: Authentic. Oxygen. Fringe.

Travis: Allergic to boring.

Arlene Maminta Browne: Innovative. Passionate. Robust.

Mary Griffith: Explosive Positive Energy

Jennifer Palmer Sansone: All About YOU!

Ria Sharon: Connection (one word)

Harrison Painter: Listen. Share. Care.

Elizabeth Hannan (who cheated this is more than three words Kind, Loves To Listen, Problem Solver.

Jennifer Cloud: Veni, vedi, vici?

Joel Libava: (hey is on the show later this week!): Energetic, Transparent, Blunt

Sonny Saggar: Conceive, Believe, Achieve

Ryan Taft: Innovative, Strategic, Young

Justin Brooke: (small cheat in here but we’ll let it go Genuine, High Performance, Automated

Thomas Dickerman: Education, Innovation, Honesty

Via Twitter:

@jordanmessina: Hustle, Hustle, Hustle

@jgaellsogeits: Compassionate, Dedicated, Lively

@lyngraft: Wear A Helmet (haha)

@richardbonilla: Passion, Persistence, Consistence

@katgordon: Original. Curious. Kind.

@reverendro: Integrity. Vision. Execution.

@pamdurkin: Creative, Edgy, Savvy.

@wineguymike: Wine Guy Mike (haha)

@tweetsbylaura: Leadership, Strategy, Growth

@abidlatif: (little cheat here clear, to the point, attractive

@elsicomoro: Driven, Dedicated, (and something that means big picture thinking)

@solutionsbyanca: New, Relevant, Revolutionary

@bwelford: Focused, Responsive, Reliable

@dereckvogler: Listen, Plan, Execute

@rizzotees: Fun, Experienced, Genius (haha)

@xoworkonadream: Change, Hope, Love

@krisinedziadul: New Generation Marketer

@RWCgordon: Authenticity, Innovative, Expertise

@misterfnygy: Ethical, Insightful, Effective

@mtnmd: Powerful, Loving, Creative

This episode of RISE is sponsored by:

Johnny Londoff Chevrolet: RISE is always locally presented by Johnny Londoff Chevrolet and not just because Johnny is a nice guy (which he is). You can get supplier pricing (which means no haggling set price) just for RISE viewers when you stop into Johnny’s dealership and mention you heard about it on RISE. Plus, we all have a thing or two to learn from Johnny about customer service and relationships. Recently I sat down with him to discuss and as an entrepreneur, I think you will find it really helpful.

Abstrakt Marketing Group: Rethinking your marketing. And not through some expensive out-of-date agency. Scott Scully understands entrepreneurs are different. Why? Because he is an entrepreneur with a plethora of start up experience so he knows how we all think (like crazy people). And he also knows that marketing is bottom line oriented. It has to generate business. They will gladly take a look at all of your marketing FOR FREE and offer suggestions (a marketing audit of sorts). Just shoot ‘em an email or call ‘em (contact info right here). Scott also sat down with me to discuss how the marketing world is changing at the speed of light which you can catch right here.

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 for your product/service?

JonDiPietro via Twitter: How about tips on interviewing?

LIFEcoachKD via Twitter: What do you think of an advisory board is you are a solopreneur?

NotAProBlog via Twitter: How do you deal with misinformation being spread about product other than to monitor everywhere and reply/clarify?

Plus asked by a few different folks: How do I get a reporter/journalist/blogger to reply to my pitch?

How would you answer the above questions? I’m sure we can ALL benefit from your thoughts.

Things mentioned you will want to check out:

Matt Brown and The Mindset Email (disclosure Matt and I do business together)

HARO: Help A Reporter

Interview with Peter Shankman

How to get quoted in the media without an expensive PR firm

Babbaco: Next week Jessica Kim will be on the show.

Personal Branding Blog: Dan Schawbel will be talking personal branding next week on RISE.

The Franchise King Joel Libava will also be joining me next week.

More information on “Rework” and interview with David Heinemeier Hansson

This episode of RISE is sponsored by:

Johnny Londoff Chevrolet: Johnny is our biggest supported because he wants to connect with entrepreneurs like you and take away all the stigma BS of buying a car. You can get supplier pricing just by mentioning you heard about Johnny from RISE and you can check out Johnny and I talking shop, business and customer service as well.

Beracha Concepts: Brad is the owner and founder of two fantastic St. Louis restaurants: Araka and Miso Lounge. We hold our events there including St. Louis RISE lunch and their food and service is awesome. Plus you can check them out on Twitter to find out about their Twitter sushi roll at Miso. Brad talked about how the Internet has changed his marketing strategy at this past month’s RISE lunch that I think you will enjoy.

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 once a month if we were all “lucky.” (Unfortunately this is still WAY too true in some cases)

-Video was not an option.

-Audio was not an option.

-It was not easy.

Now:

Everything is easy. WordPress makes it that way.

Blogs have become media and not just random thoughts. Beautiful design. Compelling content. More reflecting an interactive magazine than a blog of the past.

Plus it is never been easier to add audio and video if you choose.

Which begs the question as we evolve: Is there a better name than blogging?

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 the game.

So far, I’ve leaned towards #3 and it has been the key to growing business. Finding the right partners to do the right things.

Gateway Business Development is one of those partners I contracted Why? Because they take away the time-consuming-and-annoying-aspect of generating leads (business-to-business leads). A fair amount of business comes to me, but I wanted to reach out to businesses I didn’t know (that were more traditional and not necessarily hanging out on Twitter and Facebook) I recently sat down with Jason Bahnak from Gateway to chit-chat about what they do, how they help entrepreneurs like you and how they run their business.

The question is: How do you generate leads for your business?

Gateway has also been nice enough to give away something only for our RISE community. They will do a free “Sales Pipeline Assessment” or free “Social Media Assessment.” For each one, they will take a look at your current game plan and make suggestions to increase leads/exposure. Cool deal.  You can contact Jason personally at Jason AT gatewaybizdev.com

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 a billionaire to be considered successful.”

“You have to invest all your time, energy and money into your company. No risk. No reward.”

“You should only create a company to sell it.”

“The customer is always right.”

“You need to spend a ton of money on marketing.”

“Growing quickly is the key to success.”

Some things you will DEFINITELY want to check out:

Rework (Amazon Link) written by David and Jason Fried. It is a quick read and will make you think and act.

Hilarious video on Rework (and GREAT promotional ideal).

Sortfolio: David mentions this as a great resource to find quality web designers.

37 Signals: Unique software for businesses including Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack and more.

David’s Site: Loud Thinking His speeches are REALLY entertaining.

Signal Vs. Noise: Their blog focused on design and usability.

This episode of RISE is sponsored by:

Our local presenting sponsor Johnny Londoff Chevrolet. Here is my interview with Johnny talking advice on customer service, family business, cars and more. Plus you can get supplier pricing (no haggling) just by mentioning RISE (cool!).

And MB Consulting Group. Why waste your time dealing with geeky stuff? Computer servers and all that IT stuff. MB Consulting is basically your expert outsourced IT department that is actually affordable for entrepreneurs. CEO Ryan Mortland really understands entrepreneurship and outsourcing. Why? Because he is an entrepreneur. Here is my interview with Ryan where we discuss outsourcing, IT and entrepreneurship.

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 about me. It is about all of you. The community and friends. I took a straw poll today asking people whether or not they click on banner ads ever. 98% say NO unless by accident. Wow is all I have to say and I’m not surprised.

Think about this for a second: When was the last time you told a friend (in person, on Twitter, Facebook, email, wherever) about some really cool banner ad they should check out?

I know, laughable.

We all share content, not banners or faceless ads.

I click products reviewed by trusted sources. I click sponsors/advertisers of sites that are displayed in other ways such as integrated into the content or sponsoring a series, but never banner ads.

And this isn’t theory, lets take a look at the history and facts:

The problem is banner ads try to replace a dying ad medium of static ads. Print ads for example. When they first burst onto the Internet scene, they worked. Because nobody knew what they were. People clicked. This was great because you couldn’t click on your TV, radio, magazine or print ad. But of course, everyone becomes more educated over time and this sort of lazy advertising continues to lose effectiveness. The industry average is far less than .02% (according to Businessweek) for a click vs amount of people that see it (essentially impressions for those new to ad-speak) and continues to drop every year.

We displayed banner ads on our sites for a few sponsors and affiliates. They were never what we sold, but sort of a bonus for folks that spent a lot of money with us (and some affiliates I liked). And I found the data to be similar even with our very targeted audience of business owners, entrepreneurs and marketers (We actually outperformed the industry average by 500% but still that is low compared to other ways of advertising).

There has to be something better than this for folks who want to advertise and sponsor something, right?

My philosophies on advertising/sponsorships

1. #1 importance is trust with the audience. Trust is hard to gain and easy to lose. If you promote bad stuff, overly promote, or do it in a distasteful way, you will lose trust. Bad.

2. Products and services you feel comfortable promoting. This is inspired by Leo Laporte (This Week In Technology). He only promotes things he knows, uses or would use and trusts. I try to do the same and in fact sometimes have to turn down advertising.

3. More of a partnership than a passive relationship. A partner is a friend and both your interests are locked together. Simple, lazy advertising (ahem banner ads) doesn’t fall into the partnership category.

4. A Trusted Lab. Experimental. Over-delivering. Honest. When I work with our advertisers, I try to approach marketing like a lab. Some things will work really well. Some things won’t. The idea is to keep trying different things with the end goal of moving the sales needle. The key is to keep everyone’s best interests in mind: Your audience, advertiser and don’t forget yourself as well.

5. Disclosure. If something is sponsored, I say it. If I forget to say it (stupidly), then I’ll write it. Just because something is sponsored, doesn’t alter the impact of the content.

So, what do we do? Content Sponsorships

On The Rise To The Top, we do content sponsorships and occasional affiliates ranging from $1,000 to over $60,000.

Sponsorships on RISE are focused around content and experts. And these experts are normally entrepreneurs looking to reach entrepreneurs (a match made in heaven). We have several packages that our team sells (this year we finally got to the point where I can focus on content and we have a team selling…a glorious day).

The package we are close to selling out is the expert package. In this package sponsors get:

-An opportunity to tell their story on RISE via an interview with me. This isn’t sales pitch BS. Instead, it is an interview based around their company. Successes, failures, tips and of course how they help people. It isn’t pre-scripted or pre-determined in any way. Authentic. Real. Storytelling creates a personal connection especially since most of our sponsors ARE entrepreneurs themselves.

-For St. Louis-based sponsors, they have an opportunity to speak around their expertise at a St. Louis RISE Lunch. Again this is NOT a sales pitch. The goal here is to educate the audience and of course generate business from those that are the right fit as a result of speaking. If people know, like and trust you, they will do business with you. Nothing beats face-to-face. Plus the event is recorded and shown online as well.

-A Tip Series around their expertise. This is the newest thing and has worked really well for our long-term sponsors (such as Jeff Michelman from Paule, Camazine & Blumenthal P.C who is an entrepreneurial lawyer…you can see some of his older videos here. His new ones will be super spicy). Each sponsor will give a series of tips (short, unique videos) around their expertise which will be useful for our audience. For example: Tips on customer service, marketing, sales, entrepreneurship, productivity, SEO, online marketing and many more. In fact (spoiler alert), we are changing our TV model this year and will be inserting tips into all kinds of shows (with the goal being to introduce TV viewers to the brand and bring them to our site to find out more).  This is what we call selling around your product. Sure they want to generate business from it (hence…why someone would sponsor), but the idea here is to educate not to hard sell. If you like them or want to find out more, you can check out their websites, products, services or email them (never under-estimate one-on-one relationships).

-Plugs: I personally plug sponsors during our episodes (often at the end). This is part of some of the packages and I also do it where I see a fit. I don’t often say things like “go buy this NOW!” because I’m not a hard seller. My goal is to educate and also for you to check out what they have to say during their interviews and tips. If you like them and they solve a problem you are having, then you might want to buy.

-Outside-the-box stuff: Because I aim to always do business with people I would refer and I like doing referrals and helping people, this is an “unwritten bonus” I just sort of do. I recommend our sponsors (disclosing of course that they ARE a sponsor. No BS here) to those that might need help in a specific area since I get emails all the time. Someone looking for an IP lawyer? Of course I will recommend Jeff Michelman because I trust him, I use him AND he is a sponsor. This isn’t in the contract or anything, but for me it is just logical.

The idea here is good content spreads. It is sharable. It is tweetable. It is beneficial. And it is lasting. Plus data has already shown it is working (I’ll release the data soon as we REALLY get going). Posts and videos stay up forever. It isn’t a one night stand but instead a long term relationships with all kinds of benefits. Plus it is human. A real person! Not a faceless company.

Affiliates are the more rare of the two and based around products I use or have tried. If I like it, I will do a review and maybe have someone from the company on the show (Interview with Feedblitz founder Phil Hollows coming up soon).  But this is never an obligation to have someone on. I only do it if I think it will benefit our community. Then, I will approach the company for a special deal for RISE viewers. And promote that where I can (in episodes if there is a fit and in our new downloadable resources coming soon…much better storytelling than banner ads). If someone purchases via our affiliate code or link, I’ll get a payment. I’m super selective with these, because I really try to promote the absolute best.

Bottom line: The advertising and sponsorship game is changing. And it couldn’t be more exciting.

And of COURSE we couldn’t do this without our sponsors especially our presenting local sponsor Johnny Londoff Chevrolet. He is just about to announce a cool new program where they are partnering with St. Louis-based companies and you will never have to go to the car dealer again. They bring it to you (sweet!). You can check out Johnny and I talking customer service during a recent episode.

Also, Gateway Business Development. They are my outsourced lead generator. Meaning they hit the phones and more to generate leads for your business (especially if you are marketing business to business). And it works. I know first hand. Since I started using them, RISE income has nearly quadrupled. Seriously. Here is my interview with Jason Bahnak from Gateway on the art and science of lead generation.

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 tremendous opportunity to create content your customers/clients/etc. ACTUALLY want to read, listen to, and/or watch.

101 Marketing Strategies is sponsored by Johnny Londoff Chevrolet

Johnny is our local presenting sponsor getting super social and offering all kinds of unique deals on cars (and supplier pricing for anyone that mentions The Rise To The Top. You can check him out on Twitter for deals updated frequently (and NOT just for the St. Louis area).