Blogs
Strategic Solutions for Financial and Legal Growth

Mentoring: You Can’t Gift Someone A Future, But You Can Prepare Him or Her for It
Every now and then I use this blog space to highlight an individual or company that’s doing good work in the digital marketing, sales, or active lifestyle space, or that in some way is benefitting others through their expertise and ability to pay it forward. This is one of those times. MIKE IRWIN, BOTTLE ROCKET…

Does Your Blog Measure Up?
If you don’t yet have a blog, chances are you’ve thought of starting one, but just haven’t quite wrapped your brain around how it might be valuable to your business and brand-building efforts. If you do have a blog, congratulations, you’re part of the 53% of marketers who use blogging as their top content marketing…

Exceptional Times (and a Crowded Marketing Space) Call for Exceptional Content
I don’t read Forbes regularly, but occasionally one of their articles catches my eye—especially if it’s on a topic near and dear to my monkeyz heart. One such article I scoped out recently was 3 Content Marketing Trends That Will Rule 2018. The gist of this article is that there’s a glut of content out…

What Social Media Best Practices Do You Follow?
For most of us—even us more “seasoned” monkeyz—it’s tough to remember a time when social media wasn’t front and center to our lives. The reality, of course, is that social media as we know and practice it nowadays is a relative newcomer. LinkedIn became part of the social landscape in 2003; Facebook came on to…

Are You Communicating Effectively with Your Brand Audience?
The ability to communicate effectively is vital to success in life, both at home and in the workplace. Effective communication requires the ability to convey information verbally or in writing clearly and concisely so that your audience—whether it’s an individual, a roomful of people, or a faceless and nameless audience of thousands—absorbs and understands what…

Building Your Brand Story, One Step at a Time
Your brand is not just a clever logo, a catchy slogan, and what you say about yourself. Your brand—whether you’re an individual or large corporation—is how you act and behave and are perceived by consumers. It’s a story about you, your business, and your customers—a it’s built on hard work, offering great products and services…

Build a Website that Grows Your Brand Fans & Your Business
Most websites serve as online showcases—virtual brochures detailing products and services offered, highlighting key members of company teams, and providing a platform for some sort of e-commerce. While that’s all well and good, business owners and marketers know deep down that their websites could (and should) be doing so much more, just as their competitors…

Does Your Brand Have Personality?
Everyone likes to play the word association game. For example, if I say “dog,” you might say “cat” or “poodle” or “Fido.” If I say “monkey,” you might say “banana” or “chimp” or “primate.” So let’s start this week’s blog by playing what I call the “Brand Association” game. I’ll mention a top brand below…

Is Your Inbound Marketing Suffering from Content Block?
With 3 out of 4 marketers across the globe prioritizing inbound marketing as their primary approach to marketing these days, more than ever your marketing success relies greatly on the development of high quality content—and lots of it. Whether it’s in written form, audio (podcasts), video, or a combination of all three, without a ready…

What’s Your Recipe for Success?
Do you know what success looks like for your new project, product launch, sales/marketing campaign, or branding/re-branding efforts? Courtesy of Merriam Webster, the standard definition of success goes something like this: “the degree or measure of succeeding; a favorable or desired outcome; the attainment of wealth, favor, or eminence; or one that succeeds.” As you…

Organic vs. Paid Search Results: Where’s the Sweet Spot for My Brand?
There’s a great debate raging over whether organic results or paid results are better—especially as it relates to digital advertising efforts. While it’s long been assumed that web visitors tend to avoid clicking on search “results” they know to be ads or that are sponsored, the reality is nowadays it’s getting harder to get search…

Transparency Builds Customer Loyalty and Trust
Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg have been in the news recently—A LOT. Of course, the tech giant has been in the news for years, and usually around the unprecedented growth of Facebook and its reach around the globe and into our daily lives. For the most part, it’s been positive news. These past few weeks, however,…