Blogs

Labor Day weekend has come and gone. It’s the proverbial marker to end summer and begin fall, though by the calendar (and for those of us in warmer climes) summer has a few more weeks on the dance card. Chances are you got together with friends and family at some point this weekend and probably…

I get asked all the time where I came up with the name “Barrel O’Monkeyz.” I’ve always been intrigued by monkeys. They always seem to be having fun. Monkeys make me laugh. And that’s a big part of who I am . . . and the kind of organization I wanted my company to be.…

Digital marketing, like traditional marketing, is most effective when you “look before you leap.” In other words, consider goals and objectives, and then focus on necessary tactics, not the other way around. Sounds straightforward, I know, a real no-brainer, but you’d be surprised. Many digital marketers are more about selling tactics—aka “services”—rather than selling what…

The transition away from what’s known as “traditional marketing”—what we, back in the day, simply called “marketing”—is accelerating. Newspapers and magazines large and small are forgoing print editions in favor of online versions; and even billboards are getting digital makeovers. In its place, the ever-evolving world of “digital marketing” is firmly taking root. First came…

When it comes to communications—ANY communications—whether it’s whispering sweet nothings to a potential love interest, or trying to engage potential customers to buy your product or service, if you don’t know WHO you’re talking to, how can you hope to make a successful connection? Far too often I see business development and marketing types launch…

It’s 2016. Do you have a website? According to a 2015 Inc. Online article, more than half of small businesses do not! I find that number astounding, even a little hard to believe. Of course, what they consider a “small business” is quite broad. For example, one of the small businesses Inc. cited is a…

Do you have more “room” in your life than you think? Often I’ll hear from a client or colleague that he or she is so busy running the business that there’s positively no time left in the schedule to engage in marketing, social media, and other business development activities—let alone have a life and enjoy…

“There is immense power when a group of people with similar interests gets together to work toward the same goals.” (Idowu Koyenikan, author and consultant) Congrats to DMOS Collective on its team effort to create pro-quality, portable tools so riders and athletes can build better jumps. With over 200 backers to date and some 20+…

The hallmark of most successful business leaders and entrepreneurs is the ability to step back every now and then to reflect on where they are, where they want to be, and where they’ve been—including an examination of takeaways and critical lessons of what they’ve discovered along the way. Through reflection, we can make progress with…

The authentic, genuine YOU that you present to an audience—whether that audience is one person or one hundred—NEVER changes (at least it shouldn’t), but the way you communicate and connect with your audience by necessity must change with the context of the situation. From how you speak to the clothes you wear, you have to “know”…

A successful brand is one that can evolve with changes in the marketplace in ways that don’t force you to re-create the wheel or re-establish who and what you are or what you represent to your target customers when new technologies, trends, and ways of doing business emerge. How does your brand story reflect you…

Everyone has a story, and everyone likes to hear a good story. It’s a unique quality of being human. Heck, even cave dwellers told stories. In fact, for millennia, before we had writing, oral storytelling was the only way history passed from one generation to another. Stories were also “told” through cave paintings, hieroglyphics, singing,…