More Than A Few Words

Lorraine is still away so join Allison, Jenna and Peter as they chat about life in a small agency…and probably cats.

One of our favorite guests in MTFW history is Muhammad Yasin. Director of PR and Social Media at HCCMIS, Muhammad has a great sense of humor and an encyclopedic knowledge of social media.  It’s always a great show when he drops by. Muhammad and his coauthor Ryan Brock of Metonymy Media will join us to discuss their new ebook Nothing New an Irreverent History of Storytelling and Social Media. Nothing New is the long history of people who told the right story at the right time. The book explores the world of social media in the digital age and looks to the past to learn that when it comes to the art of storytelling, there’s nothing new under the sun.

How comfortable will you be to one day put your business in the hands of the next generation? Orr Fellowship believes in raw education and real world experience for young people. Orr Fellowship fosters recent graduates and immerses them into the world of entrepreneurship and the reality of executive-level positions. This week we will welcome Jonathon Corwin, digital marketing coordinator at Bluelock CloudSuite . He is an Orr Fellow alumni and was definitely able to showcase his talents through his experience with the organization. Jon was named Online Marketing Champion at Orr and has a passion for startup businesses, web design and entrepreneurship.

Indiana is a great place to start a new business. With a vibrant, supportive community, new business owners are just a meetup away from developers, founding partners and investors needed to launch their idea. At the center of the community is Verge, one of the most dynamic monthly events. We will be talking about Verge with one of the organizers, Tony Monteleon. He will give us a preview of the  upcoming PowderKeg conference as well as the  Indy startup community, tips for startups and much more. This is one conversation you don’t want to miss. The conversation included Information about Tony’s favorite books The E Myth and 4 Steps to an Epiphany. If you are thinking about starting a business these are must reads. The things every startup needs: Find a mentor, get connected with a lawyer and of course come to a Verge event A preview of the up coming PowderKeg conference – Look for information on early bird registration To hear about all of this and more listen to the recording below  or download through i

We are excited to have  Cindy Hartman with us this week to discuss how to create a successful turnkey business package. Since 2004,  Cindy owner of Hartman Inventory has been helping people and businesses conduct inventory of their belongings in the case of a burglary or disaster. They often found themselves talking to other would be business owners about the process of creating a business like theirs.  They began offering a turnkey business package.  Join us as we talk about this interesting alternative to franchising as a way to expand your business.

Everyone wants to be on page one as customers search Google for a business like theirs. Unfortunately, there are often millions of possible options. So how do you move to the top of the page? Search engine optimization strategies help you organize information on your website and present it to the search engines in a logical manner. This is not as easy as it sounds because the search engines continually change the rules, and your competitors are working just as hard to be on page one as your are. This week we will chat with Andrew Gouty, CEO of Rella SEO,  about ways small business owners can implement SEO strategies without breaking the bank. Since 2009, Rella SEO has established its presence as a go-to internet marketing firm. Andrew is a firm believer in turning his clients into makers and providers. So if the topic makes you want to pull your hair out, tune in this week to hear Andrew chat with us about SEO for small business.

On a regular basis Allison and Lorraine talk about the importance of creating a content strategy which will serve two masters: search engines and people.  What do people want? We’re happy with pictures and visually pleasing things. When we’re reading, we want short, simple and to the point. Search engines, on the other hand, thrive on repetition and redundancy which, if done wrong, is really annoying to readers. This week Allison and Lorraine will discuss how to create a web content strategy for people and robots.

If you dream to start a small business but you’re stuck somewhere in the beginning stages, tune in this week to get advice from a legal standpoint. Matt Griffith of Indiana Business Law explains in plain terms what you can do to jump start your business and finally get it up and running. Matt works a lot with business owners and solopreneurs. He knows exactly what it’s like to start a business in Indiana; he is an entrepreneur, investor and business owner himself. He is the senior attorney at Indiana Business Law and he works to help small business owners  maximize opportunities while minimizing risks. One of the things every new business owner should have is a business plan!  Get a copy of ourblank outline here.

We all think we understand the importance of building business relationships with customers. But do we really know how to establish and nurture these relationships to let our business benefit? This week our guest Serina Kelly of Relevate chats with us about how to create and keep successful relationships with loyal customers that may sometimes be taken for granted.   Serina knows how to connect with past, present and potential clientele to get results. She believes in the power of consistent, useful media and good timing to build customer relationships. Don’t miss her expert advice this week.

The web has continued to expand and change.  As it does, your web design needs to change as well.  This week our extraordinary web designer Peter and I will discuss new web trends as well as the do’s and don’ts of good web design. 

f you have been reading our blog lately, you know we have been talking about email marketing, a lot.   Why?  Because this  often overlooked tool, when used properly can deliver some terrific results. There are definitely some right and wrong ways to use eMail and this week we are talking with someone we think can shed some light on the topic.   Join us as we talk with Jim Cota, president and creative director of Rare Bird, Inc. Rare Bird, a marketing communications firm, is an email powerhouse, sending out a staggering 5 million emails per month for their clients.  Jim will share some of his best email marketing tips.  The show with Jim will air live at 10:30AM on July 18th.

Marketing has always raised legal questions: Can you say that? Will I sue you if you do? The move of marketing to the internet has brought all of those questions to a new platform as well as raising quite a few more. Join us today as we talk with attorney Kenan Farrell about business and intellectual property issues, including copyright, trademark, trade secret, patent, and privacy issues. Kenan has a broad base of expertise so don’t be surpirsed if we jump from technology and new media to the  arts.

It is the week of the 4th of July, so we assume most of our readers and listeners will be taking the day off.  But just in case you are craving a little dose of marketing, we thought we would share a recap of some of  our best clips from the Half Baked Marketing ideas from Steven Shattuck. If you are a regular listener of #MTFW, you know that each week, Steven joins us for the last 10 minutes of the program to kick off a conversation about one of his half baked ideas.  Allison and I, and sometimes our guests kick around ways to refine the idea and make it viable.  Today we present three conversations: How to improve the Post Office How to improve the NPR Pledge Drive How to use marketing and social media to get Pacer fans re-engaged. This is one of our favorite parts of each week’s podcast.  We hope you enjoy the collection.  And if you have an idea you would like us to discuss, post it here or share it on Twitter using the hashtag : #mtfw. And don’t forget to join us next week, when we will be live with an