My good friend and fellow marketing entrepreneur, David Simons with Kingdom Social Media, asked me a few weeks ago to join him again to speak with his students at Temple University. I was more than excited to oblige. So, in early November 2020 we hosted a live AMA (ask me anything) Temple Marketing Entrepreneurs Lecture with his class.

The marketing lecture was to be less of a lecture or presentation and more of an AMA interview style where David and the marketing students could ask me anyting about my agency, my experience, my story and more.

If you’re a marketer, a student, or just want to learn more about this AMA then watch the youtube video.

This marketing lecture was given to Temple students in the digital marketing class over a zoom call. Most students were sophomores or juniors who have an interest in marketing or entrepreneurship. We had them submit questions beforehand and during the call to find out what they wanted to know about digital marketing or how to grow in their careers. Below we will review some of these questions in more detail.

Every semester I typically get to teach or talk to a class at Temple University either about digital marketing, SEO or Entrepreneurship. I feel like this is helpful and valuable for students to get information and tips related to their careers or interests that typically won’t get covered in school. As a student or marketer wouldn’t you want to know how to find the perfect job or how to start and run a marketing agency?

Many of us probably look back at high school or college and think how useless so many classes or material were to the rest of our lives. As a marketed why did I kneed to take certain history or science classes? Why weren’t we given more hands-on practical experience to help us in our careers or daily lives?

What is the most important thing when it comes to catering to clients?

It comes down to doing the right thing and doing what you said you were going to do. Clients come to you for help with specific aspects of marketing. As an agency or consultant the most important thing is doing what you promised and providing the value that was expected from your contract.

The second most important thing is communication. Like any good relationship there needs to be transparent and constant communication to develop trust. We give our clients a weekly email update, we do a weekly or bi-weekly call, and then we provide monthly reporting. Make sure to call, text and email your clients so they know you care and are taking care of them.

What Model do we currently use at Momentum?

Our team is run by my partner, Sean Boyle, and myself. We are the only two owners and employees. Everyone else from our marketing team is a contractor or freelancer. These people are hired of a project basis only. Whether they have one project or a dozen, they get paid per project. This leads to transparent financials and common goals towards client satisfaction. If we lose a client then most likely it will have to do with the performance of the account or project manager. If they account is lost then we both lose the money. Typical contractors can be paid anywhere from 25-75% of the project or retainer.

What has been my biggest challenge when growing a business and how did I overcome it?

Honestly, starting and growing a business is incredibly difficult. There are so many random hurdles, pains and learning lessons. One of the hardest things is learning the hard way through trial and error. You don’t know what you don’t know as an entrepreneur. Of course we can read books, talk to mentors and do research. Yet, there are so many variables you don’t realize you even know, especially in regards to the following: Human Resources, hiring and training, onboarding, paperwork, taxes, accounting, laws and legal constraints, marketing changes, financial hurdles.

My biggest failure (learning lesson) is in regards to HR, human resources. I’ve hired and trained and managed well over 100 people in the past 5 years. From interns, to part time employees, to contractor, to full-time employees, freelancers and more. HR is a huge component of any growing business. I’ve been too quick to hire and too slow to fire. The exact opposite of what a business owner should do. You never really know people either. I’ve had countless employees steal money or information or clients from me too. You also need to dedicate time to hiring, training, onboarding, paperwork, HR and legal consulting, and much more. The best thing you can do is try to learn from your mistakes and improve for next time.

Do our marketing videos help us with branding and getting more clients and how do we come up with these ideas?

I definitely think creating our Marketing Blogs and videos help attract more clients and provide a lot of value. Every week we try producing a blog and video just like this that we post to our website, YouTube Channel, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more. These blogs are basically topics that I come across from various research or problems that I run into on a daily basis. If I have a customer trying to figure out how to give us Facebook Ads Manager access then I simply create a how to video that explains it and then use that as a blog. This kills two birds with one stone. These videos also helping with branding and awareness and putting a face to a name. Potential clients want to see and know who they are dealing with and paying to do their marketing work.

What are the biggest SEO challenges for small businesses?

SEO is very difficult and time consuming for any business or industry. I personally know and believe that Local SEO is much quicker and easier than Website SEO (National SEO). There is less competition because it’s local, there is less work to do, and you can get faster results too. Here are the biggest 3 issues I see when it comes to doing SEO for clients.

1. Lack of Resources & Capital
   1. A lot of smaller businesses want the world and want to rank ASAP but don’t really have the capital or resources. They don’t really understand SEO and don’t have the time or money to afford it.
2. Technical Infrastructure for their Website
   1. Many businesses don’t even have a website, and many who do clearly don’t have it setup correctly and have terrible SEO. I’ve seen tons of business website that are custom sites, drag and drop sites, or terribly designed sites that suck for SEO. For most of these we had to rebuild their website to basically start from scratch. We suggest using WordPress for web design SEO friendly sites.
3. Client Communication
   1. Most of the time small business owners are wearing 100 hats and dont have time to get back to us. Many clients don’t even have or know their logins so we can’t get the proper access in a timely fashion. As a business owner you need to know all your logins such as your website, Google accounts, analytics, google my business, hosting, domain, etc.

Tips for Starting a Successful Business?

One of the biggest aspects of entrepreneurship involves knowing and understanding yourself. You need to be self-motivated. You need to be a hard worker who is persistent and has thick skin. I’d suggest before starting a business to ask yourself these questions:

1. Why do I want to start this business?
2. How much money do I need to make?
3. How much money do I need to start and grow it?
4. Am I capable mentally and physically to do this?
5. What are the pros and cons of this?
6. Do I have thick skin and a willingness to take risks?
7. Do I have a product or service of value or am solving a problem?
8. Who will be my clients and why?
9. What are my short and long-term goals.

You need to make sure you are ready, willing and capable to take such a big step such as starting a business.

How can you get a job at Google?

This is a question I get asked all the time. You might have heard it’s easier to get into Harvard than it is getting a job at Google. Let me explain how I got this job by reverse engineering the system.

• Google wants overachievers. Make sure to have a good GPA of over 3.5 from a decent school.
• Get involved on and off campus. Join and grow in clubs. Be part of organizations and nonprofits. Take on as much work and responsibility as you can to showcase your ability to balance a lot.
• Optimize your resume and LinkedIn. Add all your skills, experience, capabilities and more. Then start building your connections and contacts to expand your network and options.
• Find the exact job you want at the exact company. Learn everything there is from the job posting and position details. Tailor your resume to fit this role.
• Connect with someone currently working at that company. Find and connect with mutual connections so that you have a starting conversation point. It’s easier to connect and talk with people at those jobs if you have something in common like what school you went to.
• Schedule a call with this person who works at the company to learn more about the hiring and interview process. Get any information you can from them that will help.
• Ask them if they can put in a referral for you since they will get a bonus if you get hired. If they do you will automatically get an interview.
• Make sure to search Glassdoor for interview questions for your role. These might be listed online. Then review and practice your answers.
• Have friends and family prep you for the interviews. Practice and study and do everything you can.

I followed this exact process to get an interview, practice the interview, and get hired for my Dream Job at Google.

How can you prove yourself without a great resume?

This is a very interesting question. It’s getting more and more difficult to get a job out of college (especially a good job) without having a great resume and lots of experience. I would follow these suggestions if you want to prove yourself and get a good job out of school.

1. Find out who you need to impress.
   1. This is unique and really important. When it comes down to it, theres typically only a few decision makers at the company you want to work at. Whether its the owner, managing director, hiring manager, or someone else, you first need to figure out who that person is and what they are looking for in a candidate. If you want to work at a smaller company it might be easier to figure out who that person is and then connect with them online. You can then go out of your way to showcase your value to them and what you can bring to their team.
2. Become great at something
   1. Try to figure out what it is you like or think you are good at. If you have some natural skillsets then try to define them even more by taking online courses or learning from others. Refine that skillset to become impressive and credible by actually developing a core tangible skill. For example, if you like design then maybe try buying some cheap online courses from Udemy.com to get much better in a short amount of time.

Really what you need to do is make yourself dynamic by trying to become the best at a core skillset that an employer will find valuable. This is one of the biggest takeaways from the Temple Marketing Entrepreneurs lecture AMA.

If you’re still in school or studying marketing then I strongly suggest honing a craft and trying everything by taking on new opportunities. Now is the time to find out what you like and what you want to do in life. Get involved and be actively growing your personal brand and expertise. Develop core skill sets that set you apart and make you an attractive hire. When it comes to digital marketing and entrepreneurship it really comes down to combining skills with passion to deliver value to others!