In The Trenches with Tom Morkes provides behind-the-scenes look into the life and work of entrepreneurs, writers, artists, warriors, and leaders.
Episodes
Monday Apr 15, 2019
Monday Apr 15, 2019
Chelsea Clark is a blog and marketing strategist. She also helps aspiring bloggers to start money-making blogs over at HerPaperRoute.com.
In today's call, we talk about how Chelsea Clark started blogging and started monetizing her blog and manage to do it numerous times now by figuring out exactly what's working in 2019.
My big takeaway from today's conversation is that blogging still works, and affiliate marketing is still an effective way to monetize a blog. You'll have to play the long game but it works.
In this broadcast, Chelsea and I talk about:
- How Chelsea got started blogging
- Why Chelsea uses Pinterest to drive traffic to her blog
- How to integrate affiliate marketing into your blog
- The importance of having multiple sources of income for your blog
- What type of content produces the best results for your blog
- How to use social media and email marketing to grow your blog
- And more
How to Connect with Chelsea:
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Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
Friday Apr 12, 2019
Friday Apr 12, 2019
Roland Frasier is co-founder and principal of three current Inc. Magazine fastest growing companies. He has founded, scaled or sold 24 different 7 to 9 figure businesses ranging from consumer products to industrial machine manufacturing companies with adjusted sales ranging from $3 million to $337 million. He is currently growing DigitalMarketer, RivalBrands, and Plattr while advising over 150 other companies on digitally-centric customer acquisition, activation, referral, retention, and revenue strategies and plan implementation.
I brought Roland onto the show today to talk about strategy and thought process; specifically, how he thinks about business and the problem he's had to solve, at various levels of resolution. My big takeaway from this call is that each of us probably has all the information, facts, and "data" we need to make big things happen. We just have to get out there and get our hands dirty. Stop searching for the latest "hack" and instead implement (and really get after it when you do).
In this broadcast, Roland and I talk about:
- Roland’s origin story (how he got started doing what he's doing today)
- How to get amazing results by making the right deals
- The best ways to get traffic and sales without an audience
- Over a half-dozen strategies Roland used, including blog networks and link-building tactics, to generate over $1 million in sales for an affiliate product (even if you don't do affiliate marketing, you'll want to listen to this part)
- The importance of SEO for product launches
- How to leverage brands and businesses that already have traffic for your own launch
- Why leaving your phone number for customer support inquiries gives you a huge advantage in sales
- Why your network and the relationships you've built are the foundation of good marketing
- How to create a relationship with a prospects and potential customers, quickly
- A system you can use to prioritize your strategies
- How to know which opportunity to pursue (and which to ditch)
- How to prevent burnout and why you shouldn't do everything alone
How to Connect with Roland:
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Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
Monday Apr 08, 2019
Monday Apr 08, 2019
Connie Ward is career coach and counselor.
As an ex-broker working in financial services, after crashing and burning she decided to help people differently, which lead to creating Passion And Purpose Mastermind for people who are confused about their career path, wanting to start a business or those who are in business and want to help more people.
She is using Meetup as a way to leverage her business.
In today’s call, we zoom in on Connie's ten-step strategy for client generation and precisely how leveraging meetup to get clients consistently.
I think this is a particularly interesting conversation because I didn’t hear a lot of people talking about MeetUp.
We go through Connie’s exact situation where she was. Where she lives, there aren’t a lot of people, and she was able to get a room full of people and then close over nine thousand dollars worth of coaching clients from that one event and continue to run Meetup groups and leverage this strategy. So it seems to be highly effective.
In this broadcast, Connie and I talk about:
- Connie’s entry about her background story stepping into what she is doing today
- What are the ten steps in a meetup strategy
- How to monetize on Meetup.com
- What to say in one on one conversations
- How is Meetup your partner in creating your group
- What thing’s you have to know about the platform and what things you need to do in order to implement Connie's strategy
- How to use the right strategy in building your group by following the rules of Meetup
- What are the subtle ways to get contact information from your new group
- When is the optimal time to run your first event
- How to successfully organize physical events after connecting with people from Meetup
- Why getting people to work with you one on one is crucial for your income and business?
- How to approach people in your new group
- What are the differences between Meetup group and Facebook group
How to Connect with Connie:
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Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
Friday Apr 05, 2019
Friday Apr 05, 2019
Nick Usborne is an online copywriter and site optimization expert with over 20 years of experience online. During a career spanning 40 years in the marketing industry – offline and then online – he has worked with dozens of major companies. Since 1997, he has been working exclusively on marketing online and internationally recognized as a leading expert on the subject of writing for the Web.
He attributes his success to “conversational copywriting,”.
In today's conversation, we talk about, why is conversational copywriting the future of not just copywriting in general, but also for all interactions online? How do we write to engage with our customers and clients? Because if you can engage the readers, and if you write copy that gets responses, that gets people replying, sharing, and taking action, that's the purpose of copywriting right?!
You are probably implementing this idea of conversational copywriting into your email sequences, your social media strategy or your sales page strategy, even if you don't know it. I think the most effective operators are already writing this way and the chances are that your favorite newsletter or something like that, is written in a very conversational style.
In this broadcast, Nick and I talk about:
- Nick's entry about entering the world of copywriting
- What differs conversational copywriting from ''standard'' one
- What types of engagement are available to use with your clients
- How to sell with conversational copywriting
- Why selling through conversation in a better way to do it
- How to choose the right platform for better engagement with your audience
- Ways to encourage dialogue with your audience
- Is storytelling fits into this type of copywriting
How to Connect with Nick:
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Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
Monday Apr 01, 2019
Monday Apr 01, 2019
Michele Moreno is a camera coach who works with entrepreneurs, creators and anyone who wants to get in front of the camera. She helps them show up, present and crush their video presentations. As an actress, singer, business writer, confidence expert, Michele helps people become a better versions of themselves, and turn their viewers into clients.
My big takeaway from today's call is that the 20% of effort that creates the 80% of your results from video presentations is all stuff that's under your control. It has nothing to do with big budget editing, expensive cameras, snazzy lighting, or anything like that. The critical pieces are the things that you do when you're on camera and how you show up, speak, look, and engage. That is what we cover in today's conversation.
In this broadcast, Michele and I talk about:
- How Michele stepped into the world of acting
- Why Michele made the switch from actor to coach
- Where to begin with video presentation
- How to overcome the fear of the camera and crush your video presentations
- What types of video you should produce based on your niche and professional skills
- Presentation strategies for Youtube and Facebook live
- How to use a video to generate new clients for your business
- Why tribal rituals are critical for attracting a group of followers
- The biggest mistakes that people make when they film themselves
4 Quick video presentation tips from Michele:
- Look at the lens
- Good lighting (stand in front of the window)
- Get your hands free / put a video on a stand, so it doesn't shake
- Make sure your face is large in the frame. Top of head to top of the frame - close the gap.
How to Connect with Michele:
Additional Tools :
- PromptSmart App
- Teleprompter for iPads, Androids, and Phones
- Teleprompter Pro -Script & Lyrics Prompter Cue
Get the Latest Broadcasts of In The Trenches
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How You Can Support In The Trenches
Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
Friday Mar 29, 2019
Friday Mar 29, 2019
AJ Wilcox is an online marketer since 2007 and founder of B2Linked which is a LinkedIn Ads performance agency.
Extremely active in the online marketing community, he is a LinkedIn Certified Ads Partner, and he manages the official LinkedIn Ads group forum, and he is a board member of SLC | SEM among other things. An exotic car nut and a triathlete. He lives in Utah with his wife and four kids.
In today's call, AJ and I discuss: How he got his start growing this agency? How he was leaving from his company as an employee and then decided to start this company from scratch and what that process was like, and also how quickly he got it up and running to a point where it replaced his day job income, and then somebody has grown substantially since then?
All right. Let's go ahead and dive into today's conversation.
In this broadcast, AJ and I talk about:
- AJ's entry about how he got into LinkedIn advertising and growing the B2Linked
- How to go all in on your business after you'd been laid off?
- How to get your first clients in your new business?
- Ways to quickly grow your business.
- Why focusing on a niche is the right thing to do?
- How to get the right employees in at the right time?
- Where should you be focused to get the best ROI?
- What type of companies benefits from LinkedIn?
- Is LinkedIn Ads something that's overlooked for future business?
How to Connect with AJ:
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Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
Monday Mar 25, 2019
Monday Mar 25, 2019
Travis Ketchum, founder & CEO of the contest-optimizing service Contest Domination, joins the show today. Since 2012, Travis’s software has allowed him to give businesses the tools to expand their email lists and create new customers through contest engagement.
Travis speaks about his entry into the world of contest marketing and the struggles of creating and promoting new software. He delves into advice for getting maximum engagement in contests and converting those contest participants into customers.
In this broadcast, Travis and I talk about:
- Travis’s entry into the world of technology and business
- How Travis conceived a way to encourage contest engagement
- The investment necessary to get into software
- How Travis launched and initially promoted the contest software
- The pros and cons of working with affiliates
- The importance of designing contests with specific goals in mind
- Why choosing appropriate prizes for the contest audience is key
- How to bring in customers with activation offers
- Driving contest sign-ups and getting maximum engagement
- How to convert contest participants into customers
- Harnessing the intrigue of the winner announcement to create more participants and customers
- Other opportunities to leverage the winner announcement process
How to Connect with Travis:
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Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
Friday Mar 22, 2019
Friday Mar 22, 2019
Yaro Starak, a self-made millionaire, started his internet business model in 1998. Since then, he has owned several businesses and made millions of dollars with his simple model. He has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, and HuffPost where he is known for explicitly sharing his entrepreneurial journey.
Today, Yaro talks about his most recent business Inbox Done. He shares his personal experience with his email inbox, why he created the business, and how it is helping others. On the business side, he delves into how to scale a services business, why systemization is key, and how he is able to create several different businesses from one model. For anyone who is thinking about starting a business or has one of their own, this episode is for you. Now, it is your turn to make millions.
In this broadcast, Yaro and I talk about:
- Managing your inbox and why someone else should be managing it for you
- How Yaro pivoted from creating content to owning his own company
- The amount of time we spend on email and why it isn’t an efficient use of time
- Scaling a service company comes down to systemization
- Why the onboarding process is key
- Trust is a big part of any business
- How Yaro approaches his business margin
- Why partnerships and collaboration are key in business
- The inbox is where a lot of stuff begins and ends
- Why a collaborative approach to business allows more freedom
- AI will not completely take over our inboxes - why we all need a human manager
- The number of use cases for having someone else manage your inbox
- How to stay on the pulse while someone else is managing your inbox
How to Connect with Yaro:
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Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
Monday Mar 18, 2019
Monday Mar 18, 2019
In this episode, I discuss e-commerce cooperatives with Barth Getto, Owner of Empowery. Barth has an extensive background in marketing, and decided to put his skillset to use helping small businesses via Empowery. Empowery is a member-owned e-commerce cooperative that is focused on giving cooperative members a broad range of insight into the e-commerce industry, daily support, and key data that helps make pivotal e-commerce decisions. When you are a part of a cooperative, you have the knowledge of the cooperative at your fingertips.
Barth gives us an in-depth look at cooperatives with a focus on his e-commerce cooperative. Barth highlights why being a part of a cooperative is a powerful tool especially when you are developing your own e-commerce business.
In this broadcast, Barth and I talk about:
- How cooperatives play a specific role in a segmented market
- Why Barth chose a cooperative model in this company
- How Barth´s company helps people selling products online
- How can you join Barth's network
- Why being in a cooperative provides you with key data that you can leverage
- How the cooperative solves members day to day problems
- In what scenario you would be a good fit for the cooperative
- How the cooperative supports its members
- Why the cooperative is a non-profit
- How you can join the cooperative and the costs to join
- How Barth drives growth in the cooperative
- What makes starting a cooperative difficult
- Why entry costs are barring competition from entering this unique space
How to Connect with Barth:
- You can connect with Barth via email at barth@empowery.com
Get the Latest Broadcasts of In The Trenches
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Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
Friday Mar 15, 2019
Friday Mar 15, 2019
David Burkus is a best-selling author, and a sought after speaker and associate professor of leadership and innovation at Oral Roberts University. David’s innovative views on leadership have earned him invitations to speak to leaders from a variety of organizations. His TED talk has viewed over 1.9 million times, and he is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review.
Today, David speaks about his newest book, Friend of a Friend, which offers readers a new perspective on how to grow your networks and build key connections, based on the science of human behavior, not rote networking advice. It offers a strategic way to approach this idea of relationship building in the context of business.
We don't just talk, we get into the weeds but how to connect to people how to follow up and more. So even if you're the most socially awkward kid on the block, this will still work for you.
All right. Let's go ahead and dive into today's conversation.
In this broadcast, David and I talk about:
- David’s entry about the inception of an idea for his book.
- Why your network does matter
- How to start and stay up to date and keep in touch with people especially if you're introvert
- Why you should be doing everything in your power to build relationships
- The importance of being authentic and understanding the network that you're already in.
- What is the most profitable way to build your business through effective networking
- What are actually your strong and weak ties in your network
- Become a ''super connector.''
- How to connect in the right way in digital space
- Ways to do effective connecting
How to Connect with David:
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Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.