Scaling Your Business GROWTH Stage

A successful Go-to-Market Strategy unifies and streamlines the brand experience between a potential client through a repeat client and the processes between marketing, sales, and customer experience so well together that you can't tell where the one starts and the other stops.

It’s a practical path for creating alignment to go from launch to transform without losing momentum and stalling out somewhere along the way. A Go-to-Market Strategy is a foundation for building high-performing teams to s…

What is a snowflake? More importantly, what do snowflakes have to do with branding and scaling your organization?

A snowflake is when a brand believes that it is unique in its market and that the market should go out of its way to recognize it. It’s mostly ego-driven and is guaranteed to backfire. The moral of the story: don’t be a snowflake. The reality is because you are still reading this, you’re not.

When an organization struggles with fundraising, generating leads, closing sales, or retai…

What does it mean to be interesting? According to Dictionary.com, interesting means “arousing curiosity or interest; holding or catching the attention”. Is your brand interesting? Does your marketing arouse curiosity or hold the attention of your intended audience?

To be interesting doesn’t mean you need to become a comedian or that suddenly you only share content featuring cute puppies. Being interesting means that you are interested in your audience’s needs and wants. It means that you can re…

Which is more important, quantity or quality? It seems like everyone has their own opinion about which one is “more” important. I think it’s asking the wrong question and seeks to justify an excuse. Yes, you need quantity because not every prospect is a good fit for your organization and yes, you need quality to ensure that your leads are qualified and likely to convert. It’s not one or the other, it’s both.

Most of your client journey is outside of your control. With all the modern technology …

In early 2021, I changed my tagline to Be Ready to Scale®. Shortly after that, I was meeting with a prospect and he asked me, “Why did you choose the word 'scale' instead of growth?”

At first, I was taken aback. It wasn’t a question I was expecting as we were talking about his company and how I could help him. I was happy to answer him though. It’s what makes me different from my competitors.

I explained that growth is something that is usually thought about in linear terms—a company acquires …

MVP. Sounds exciting. You want that title. Right?

Well, unfortunately, I am not going to talk about being the most valuable player. Instead, my thoughts are about a minimal viable product (MVP). I know that is nowhere near as sexy. And as you know, you don't want me talking sports. LOL!

Anyway, I want to draw attention to the words--minimal...viable...product—MINIMAL in particular.  

The concept is great, you spend as little as possible and generate the most revenue (and hopefully profit too)…

Marketing terminology really hasn’t changed over the years—even though consumers, the market, technology, and expectations have.

In my experience, there are gaps between formal, traditional marketing statements, the pillars of marketing success, and the actual application and results of these structures. These statements are either too formal and wordy or too slapstick and trendy. The pillars used to build and define marketing efforts were based on consumer behavior of the 1950s at best. Most m…

I remember having a conversation with a business owner years ago about branding. He was trying to convince me that a brand’s logo should NEVER, EVER change. At the time I had been in the industry for over a decade and knew that his intention was correct, but the reality couldn’t be more wrong. As I sat there listening to his reasonings—which completely contradicted each other, but that’s another story—I was taken back to my days in college and my History of Graphic Design book. There was an enti…

What is a fractional CMO?

A fractional CMO is a contract Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), retained on a part-time basis to provide executive marketing leadership for a growing business. They are a key part of your executive team brought in to take a holistic view of your business. They seek to understand your business objectives with enough clarity to develop fresh and impactful marketing strategies that will drive growth for your organization. They work with you to develop strategic insights, fo…

Hiring a CMO or Director of Marketing can be challenging. These are very important roles that can make or break an organization— especially when you factor in the costs of recruiting, benefits, and the equity you may have to hand over. To invest all this in finding a CMO when there is no guarantee they will be a fit is a massive risk to take on.

‍Fractional work is the new full-time employee. Whether you call it part-time, interim, gig work, virtual, on-demand, contract work, consultant, or fra…