Blog Author Guest - Page 1

LinkedIn has about half a billion users worldwide and the chances that your next client are scrolling through their feed right now is likely. The largest B2B social platform in the world has came out with more feature updates in the first half of 2017 than the entirety of 2016.

The point: LinkedIn is catching on like wildfire! (not a Game of Thrones reference either!)

There are times in one’s own life that stick out as defining moments that shape who we are, the same way a massive flood can change the Earth’s landscape by carving it into pieces and destroying what was once there.

On April 29^th of this year, I received a call from an old Army friend of mine that no one was expecting. He called and told us that Weston Lee had been hit by an IED and passed away the night before.

Content is King. But Distribution is Queen... And she wears the pants!

 
It can be extremely frustrating to put in the hours that it takes to create amazing content and never see any results. I can remember when I first started blogging more than 8 years ago and see 2 people actually read it. Typically, those two people were my parents... thanks mom!

But the reason why your blog isn't being read is summed up in three words: Distribution, Distribution, Distribution!

Life in the Army isn’t for everyone. It’s tough, nasty, and brutal at times. The only thing that prepares you for the things you have to do in the military is the training you receive.

The training serves 3 purposes:

1.       Skills

2.       Team communication

3.       Adaptability

(2 min read)

I'll have to admit, I've been a big time skeptic. There’s a conversation going around that cold calling is dead, and I just couldn’t bring myself to believe it.

I mean, what happened to being “held to the flames”? My first sales job I was on the floor making cold calls and closing big contracts within a few weeks.

Have you ever gone into a sales pitch and started using old techniques like the age-old SPIN selling tactic to close the deal? I can remember growing up and watching all those old movies from the 80s that featured "go getters" in suits screaming out to each other "Always Be Closing!". 

Back in 2011, the Georgia Legislature started an initiative that would encourage the growth of small and medium businesses through crowdfunding investments. The new rule change, which is was officially in effect since last month, will allow for SMB’s to get around the previous restrictions of crowdfunding in the state.

Can you believe that we are halfway through 2017 already? Being in sales, I understand August can be a slower month. But I’m a glass half full kind of guy. So I think this month should be used to catch up on some things you’ve been pushing off for the last half of the year. Living in Atlanta definitely has its perks. But, one thing everyone is familiar with is the traffic. So instead of watching the guy in front of me pick his nose all the way from Peachtree to Lenox, I’m going to be learning about history, business, and geeking out on the best podcasts that are out now.

Back in 2003, Nick Carr wrote an article for the Havard Business Review titled “IT Doesn’t Matter”. This obviously had a lot of headline readers furious. With a worldwide IT spend of $2.6 trillion dollars, it’s no wonder why Nick Carr was labeled a heretic and blasphemer. It seems we live in a day and age where assumptions about IT run rampant. Ever since a young Intel engineer named Ted Hoff, back in 1968, found a way to put the circuits necessary for computer processing onto a tiny piece of silicon, the business world has dubbed IT as the backbone of commerce. And there’s no doubt that this assertion rings true in many ways since it spurred a series of technological breakthroughs—desktop computers, local and wide area networks, enterprise software, and the Internet.

Working out of the Atlanta Tech Village, I have ran into loads of companies that are operating off of a shoestring budget with limited capital to spend on marketing efforts. Sometimes, even the thought of using paid advertising makes a small business owner shutter. Mainly because owners aren’t necessarily marketers, and there’s a lot of uncertainty around the return on investment. However, there’s a number of ways that a small business can leverage digital marketing by spending very little and targeting exactly who their customers are.