The Bacon Podcast with Brian Basilico | CURE Your Sales & Marketing with Ideas That Make It SIZZLE!

Sassy is a word she likes to use to describe herself, but really words like driven, focused, and direct are closer to the flavor of cupcake that she is. Robin started SCP AGENCY in a time when no one knew this was a business. In 2013 they would ask…“Like, do people really pay you to do that?” Of course, they do! They don’t want to learn this crap; it changes faster than Cher changes costumes between sets. After snagging a business degree, Robin discovered marketing, automotive and public speaking, so now she gets to show off SCP Agency results while af...

It's hard to believe that's it's been a year that most of us have been on lockdown due to the pandemic. It has been tough on some and we all need a way to stay upbeat and redefine our purpose. There is a Japanese word, Ikigai, that means "a reason for being". The word refers to having a direction or purpose in life, that which makes one's life worthwhile, and towards satisfaction and a sense of reason. To find that purpose, it has a convergence of four key things: What Do You Love? What Are Your Good At? What The...

Chuck Hester is a nationally renowned LinkedIn trainer and speaker who helps clients get the most out of LinkedIn. He also teaches others how to communicate effectively both in their personal life and career. Chuck has addressed audiences throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, and Australia. He has created and presented online courses for Content Marketing Institute and been a guest on more than 50 podcasts. He is also the host of Conversations with Chuck Hester, a weekly podcast live on LinkedIn. Learn More Pay It Forward Tuesdays - Click Here

It's easy to have a full email inbox. As a business owner, you don't want to be part of somebody's full inbox, meaning your email lays unread and ultimately in the trash bin. That means you have to make your emails "Must Read" just like "Must See TV". Email newsletters are the biggest culprit of the land of unread emails. Too often they contain multiple stories, trying to appeal to a wide audience, but often when you miss the mark."If you make them choose, you often confuse." To stand out you have to have compelling information, that people want...

Like most of us, David Priemer never thought he'd end up in sales! He started his career tinkering with test tubes and differential equations as an award-winning research scientist before spending the next 20 years leading top-performing sales teams at high-growth technology companies including Salesforce, where he was the Vice President of Commercial Sales and creator of the Sales Leadership Academy program. Today, as the Founder and Chief Sales Scientist of Cerebral Selling, David's unique science and empathy-based approaches to driving revenue and talent growth have been published in the Harvard Business Review as well as Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Inc. magazines...

Did you know that the average person spends 2.5 days (60 hours) per year searching for lost items? My guess is that is even longer if you include your digital assets (emails, password, computer files, and more). If you are a solopreneur, that can easily add up to over $6000 (at $100 per hour) in lost billable time per year. If you have a team of 20 people, that could add up to over $10,000 per month in lost billable time or just simple waste! There are four things or groups that I'd like to discuss today: Email Passwords Paperwork Desk Clutter In this episode, how...

Hi. I’m Warren Whitlock. My mission is to help brands improve the results of their digital marketing. I started creating content for marketing when “new media” meant we could combine multiple slide projectors for a presentation. By the time I went online in 1981, I’d learned to push for better technology whenever it allowed us to achieve our objectives. Throughout my career, I have created new strategies to use influence and persuasion to help people get what they want. I set hard sales goals and measured performance but never forget that people hate to be sold, but love to buy. I h...

Black Magic Ball with answer Outlook not so good There is a big difference between a marketing plan and a marketing strategy. A Crystal Ball, the Magic 8-Ball, and Zoltar are all fun, but in the end, it's entertainment and not sound business. A marketing strategy refers to a business's overall game plan. Business strategists help determine targets for their organizations. A strategist will work with sales, marketing. CEO, CIO, CMO, and all who need to have a say in the process. A good and complete marketing strategy embodies a company's value proposition, brand, customer demographics, and other past, current...

Connie Regan Green Connie Ragen Green is a former classroom teacher and real estate appraiser who left it all behind to come online in 2006. As an author of more than twenty books, publisher, international speaker, and entrepreneur she serves others by helping new entrepreneurs to build their own lucrative online businesses. Connie is also active with several non-profits including Rotary International, the Boys & Girls Club, Zonta, and SEE International. Learn More about Connie's & Ellen's New Book - Click Here Ellen Finkelstein Ellen Finkelstein is a recognized expert, speaker, trainer, and best-selling author on PowerPoint, presentation skills, and AutoCAD. Her articles...

According to a recent study by MIT, second-born children, particularly boys, tend to be the troublemaker or the “black sheep” in the family compared to their older siblings. The youngest children are spoiled and are believed to be unafraid to do risky things. In business, it pays to be the problem child. They tend to disrupt the norms and help to solve problems that keep clients and prospects up at night. They tend to do three things well when it comes to problem-solving: Solve It Better Solve It Faster Solve It Cheaper In this episode, we will look at how maki...

Craig Lowder, author of Smooth Selling Forever, is a sales-effectiveness expert with a thirty-year track record of helping owners of small and mid-size companies achieve their sales goals. He is the president of MainSpring Sales Group, which assists businesses in need of a strategic sales leader on a part-time contract or project basis to develop and execute a sales strategy, develop sales process and performance management systems, and ensure sales execution. Craig has worked with over sixty companies and increased first-year annual sales from 21 to 142 percent. He speaks extensively on the topics “Smooth Selling Forever”. “Your Sales Should Run Like Clockwor...

I often hear from companies after I explain my process, "We like what you have to say... but we are just going to hire a marketing person." I ask in return "Which one?" They often don't understand that marketing is a team sport. It takes multiple people with multiple skills such as  SEO, Web, Email, Social Media, Ads Expert, Google Manager, Writer, Designer, System Integrator, Strategist, and more. In the book the E-Myth Revisited, the author talks about how a successful business requires three core members, a Technician, Manager, and Entrepreneur. Marketing is not much different. Although it needs many o...

Alain Hunkins helps high achieving people become high achieving leaders. Over his 20+ year career, Alain has worked with over 2,000 groups of leaders in 25 countries. He’s worked with 42 of the Fortune 100 companies. In addition to being a leadership speaker, consultant, trainer, and coach, Alain is the author of CRACKING THE LEADERSHIP CODE: Three Secrets to Building Strong Leaders which was published by Wiley in March of this year. The book was endorsed by leadership luminaries Jim Kouzes, Barry Posner, and Marshall Goldsmith. Alain serves on the Academic Board of Advisors of the New Delhi Institute of Management and is a fa...

We have all heard that "Time is Money", but in some cases "Time Costs Money". In business, it often makes send to find tools that make your life easier, less complex or helps you speed up processes This episode is pretty straight forward. I have spent months before the new year researching tools that could help me become more efficient.  These tools are all ones that I have tried and paid for (in some cases). I only recommend tools that I actually use in my business so I can spend more time on my business (which is build around helping c...

Eleanor Haglund is an MBA candidate at Columbia Business School and Founder and CEO of Aspire 360, a network of startup CEOs that support each other's growth. After studying Creative Writing, Psychology and Entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University, she founded two startups: one in the e-book publishing space and the other in the pharmaceutical space. She was an inaugural member of the Innovation Scholars Program in Project Olympus and has participated in two accelerator programs (Health Wildcatters and eLab NYC). She has won awards in several startup competitions, including the McGinnis Competition, the CMU Venture Challenge and Hack-a- Startup. In college...

The word “YES” alone is a very positive word but, a lot of times the word yes has an addendum to it such as yes and, or yes but. Today I want to help you know when you should be letting go of your buts when it comes to the word ‘YES'. While “Yes… But” is where people are trying to whittle away at the information to narrow it down, “Yes… And” adds to the situation and adds value. If you're using the “Yes.. And” then you're probably adding value to your relationships. If you're using the yes but you're basically trying to fi...

Hi. I’m Warren Whitlock. My mission is to help brands improve the results of their digital marketing. I started creating content for marketing when “new media” meant we could combine multiple slide projectors for a presentation. By the time I went online in 1981, I’d learned to push for better technology whenever it allowed us to achieve our objectives. Throughout my career, I have created new strategies to use influence and persuasion to help people get what they want. I set hard sales goals and measured performance but never forget that people hate to be sold, but love to buy. I h...

Image by Tumisu from Pixabay Welcome back to the new reality of 2021. Although we are just getting off the ground (business-wise), there are many business and marketing experts that are trying to suggest that now is the time to hustle. Not to pick on anyone's philosophy, some will tell you that time is a limited resource that you can't get back, but you can always make more money? I beg to differ and say that is a business mirage. You can replenish money, but most of us have limited resources. What I am suggesting is you treat both as a...

Coach A.M. Williams is a Results Coach who specializes in helping experts transform their expertise into high leveraged offers. He is the owner of A.M. Williams Coaching Co., LLC and has personally coached and trained numerous executives, lawyers, doctors, recording artists, and other coaches and consultants over the past 10 years from a bed-bound state. Having been diagnosed with incomplete paraplegia (extreme weakness in legs), Coach A.M. has discovered the gift of challenges and has mastered the art of transforming adversity into one’s greatest advantage. He also is one of the Best-Selling authors of the book “Resilience: Turn...

Photo by Simon Zhu on Unsplash Every year I have a new year tradition. I take the day on January 1st to put away last year's files and make new file folders for the coming year for both personal and business. It helps me hit the ground running. Now is a good time to get other things organized as well. You don't have to be all high tech or spend a lot of money to do this, but it will take some time and planning to do it. I am suggesting you look at 5 key things that you can organize...

Marla Tabaka is an internationally known small business strategist, national radio show host, and leading Inc.com author. Her integrative approach to coaching combines mindset management and strategic planning, resulting in multi-million dollar businesses for many of her small business clients. After a career of 22-years as an Emmy Award-winning producer at NBC Television, Tabaka worked as a creative consultant for large and mid-sized corporations, established and sold a retail business, and then founded her business coaching practice in 2003. Early in her coaching career, she achieved the status of a leading coach with the American Express sponsored “Count Me In fo...

Photo by Jan Baborák on Unsplash A friend, mentor, and frequent podcast guest expert, Marla Takaka (see Episodes 171, 395, 531, and the upcoming episode 633) asked a question on Facebook. "Do you have or use a word to theme your year? What is your choice this year?". My word for the year is "Signify" which I visualize as a lighthouse on a rocky coast. How can I utilize this to help increase the value that I provide you (my audience and customers), and what does this mean in it's purest form: Be an indication of - Take Intentional Action Be a symbol of...

Mark S. A. Smith designs and implements customer acquisition systems that find and recruit customers for disruptive products. He speaks at entrepreneurial events delivering pragmatic ideas to grow and succeed. He is an electrical engineer, media technologist, computer programmer, hardware salesman, software marketer, and business owner who works with leaders who must develop the best way to bring in the right customers, fast! Mark wrote 13 books and sales guides targeting government, educational, healthcare, and the private sector, including three with Guerrilla Marketing author, Jay Conrad Levinson. He has authored more than 400 magazine articles. With his engineering, sales, and business background...

If you stream TV and have Netflix, then you may have seen the mini-series "The Queens Gambit". It a story about how an orphan girl became the queen of chess in the 1960s. In the series, Beth learns to play chess and at night while lying in bed, she would play out the moves in her mind on the ceiling. This is a form of creative visualization and mindset. The same type of mindset can be used to play out moves in your business for the coming year, but it will take a deliberate effort to turn change into a...

Chelsea Martin is Co-Owner of Noms Bake Shop, the industry expert in the art of convenient corporate gifting that leaves a lasting impression. In the noisy world of gift-giving, Noms Bak Shop makes you the hero, providing a solution to gifting by cutting through the clutter and delivering a premium twist on traditional baked goods in a highly personalized way that's easy to order. Chelsea and the Noms team specialize in making sure you and your company make a lasting impression on past, current and future clients with premium customizable packaging and delicious cookies that will actually be enjoyed. Chelsea...

If you have multiple parts of your business (wholesale, retail, and online), it makes sense to have multiple websites to serve each of your different audiences. I have this podcast site, one for my books (NotAboutU.com), one for my speaking business (BrianBasilico.com), one for my LinkedIn Consulting (LI4Sales.com), and others. Building each website is done with the help from a series of experts, (graphics, web developers, hosting companies, security programmers, integration, web content writers, blog content writers, and more). It's rare and often a mistake to try to find an all in one solution. You don't...

Brian Searcy is the President of The Paratus Group. His vision for The Paratus Group is to “Redefine How Safety is Learned” to make Schools, Churches and the Workplace and our Communities as safe as possible. His unique experience and expertise, with the help of The Paratus Group Team, have revolutionized how situational awareness is trained and learned allowing the opportunity for every single member of our communities, the true first responders, to be “Prepared to Survive”. Following a decorated senior leadership career in the USAF as a commander and combat veteran, Brian transitioned into executive roles as a business entrepre...

People who know me know that I like acronyms. BACON is an acronym for Building Authentic Connections Online Marketing. Politics is a touchy subject, but it's been interesting how messages have evolved over the years to maximize the medium of the day (radio, TV, social media). The one key factor has been collecting and utilizing data, but the way that data is updated and verified is very old school. The real way to maximize it is door-to-door and face-to-face. That is hard for us to do right now, but you don't want to start the year out behind the curve. ...

Bill Guertin (pronounced like "13") is a positive voice for change and is the leader of the “7 Voices” Movement, whose purpose is to hear, recognize, and minimize the effects of the negative Voices inside people’s heads and to implement simple strategies to make positivity a life-choice every day. As a sales trainer, he's worked with the ticket sales departments of over 100 professional sports teams throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico, and he serves as Chief Learning Officer of ISBI 360, a virtual training network specifically for executives in sports and entertainment. Bill has over 30 years’ experience in sales and leadership, including 20 years in...

In 1970, John Lennon released a son "Instant Karma". In our 'want it now' world I am here to tell you that it's not how this works. Sometimes, you can do all the right things but still, suffer. I had a friend (Alma Harrel) who when you asked her how she was, always said, "Too Blessed to be Stressed!" Sometimes you have to take a step back and realize what you can be grateful for. People think of Amazon as being in the products and services business, but I think it's in the convenience business. It causes me to question, "Do...

Rick Lochner is the President of RPC Leadership Associates, Inc. where he helps Business Owners Make Leadership a Way of Life. A Certified Veteran-Owned Business, he helps clients align their businesses to enjoy sustainable success on their terms. Rick is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and has over 30 years of leadership experience across the Military, Corporate, Entrepreneurial, Academic and Non-Profit organizations. Rick is the author of several books including, "The Missing Piece for Entrepreneurs" and “I’m Still Sayin’…More Revelations for Making Leadership a Way of Life”. An accomplished public speaker, his popular leadership...

Although it started out as a graphic, what I found myself doing was making a case for Case Studies. Case Studies are often conflated with White Papers. A white paper talks about the implementation of a solution, while a case study provides actual examples of how a solution fixes a problem. A Case Study is not a press release or advertising. It's also NOT ABOUT YOU! It's about the client or customer and their story. It should also follow the example of a Hero's Journey script. While those have 12 parts, a Case Study should focus on three parts: Problem? Solution? ...

Known as the Academic Entrepreneur, Dr. Cheryl is a unique and dynamic speaker who intensely connects with her audience, having one foot in academia and one foot in the business and entrepreneurial space. Her goal is to offer the audience pearls of wisdom today they can use tomorrow in their personal and professional lives. It is not enough to know; the expectation is for participants to take action and do. Join Dr. Cheryl on her journey to connect these dots to provide inspiration, knowledge, and counsel to move forward effectively. Known globally for her writings on leadership and failure, as...

Who could have predicted what 2020 would be a tumultuous year? Every year has a degree of ebbs and flows, but this year was unique. What did you learn from the challenges that were presented? How can you take what you learned and apply it looking forward to 2021? There are three key lessons I believe challenged us all this past year: Was your business ready for the change? Did your relationships in business get challenged by beliefs? What did you learn about yourself? In this episode, we will discuss what this year and it's challenges can do to help us prepare...

Michelle’s primary focus is helping leaders and employees achieve high-performance and measurable results that encompass engagement, productivity, well-trained individuals and effective teams. Michelle brings a vigorous customer-focused approach with client engagements. She is accomplished with diverse and multi-cultural audiences and is a certified Personified Leadership facilitator. Michelle’s body of work spans the following practice areas: Instructional Design, Facilitation, Executive Coaching and Performance Consulting Learn More About Michelle and Instructional Design- Click Here

Did you know that people are voting for your social media posts? People vote on your posts with likes, comments, and shares, but social media platforms have a form of voter suppression with their algorithms. The more that people engage with your content, the more the algorithms reward you, There are some key things that you can do to get out the vote for your info: Challenge Perceptions Start With A Question Find the Emotion Use Mental Images Measure The Result or Outcome In this episode, we will discuss how you can create more engagement and win the election of...

Karolyn dropped additional nuggets of sales and marketing goodness in the EXTENDED Interview. Be sure to click here to access all of our great extended interviews, transcripts and more within our Insider's Club. You can try it for the entire month for only $1.00! [button link="http://baconpodcast.com/dollar-special/"]READ MORE >[/button] Click To Learn More! Karolyn Vreeland Blume was born many years ago in New York City. She started her professional life as a lawyer with a successful general practice including litigation, real estate, divorce, business and estates. As a lawyer, Karolyn encountered many diverse situations involving a wide v...

The fall in Chicago is what I call 50 Shades of Gray... because it's cloudy and drab almost every day. I miss the sunshine and the puffy white clouds already! But I want to talk about a different kind of cloud that can help you improve your marketing results... wordclouds. There are two websites a recommend WordClouds.com and TagCrawl.com. Each of these have different features and offers different views of your text. These can help you visualize your web pages, blogs, and more. What words are sticking out to you? Will they resonate with your intended audiences? There are...

Marc dropped additional nuggets of sales and marketing goodness in the EXTENDED Interview. Be sure to click here to access all of our great extended interviews, transcripts and more within our Insider's Club. You can try it for the entire month for only $1.00! [button link="http://baconpodcast.com/dollar-special/"]READ MORE >[/button] Marc Mawhinney is on a mission to help coaches build stronger businesses!  He has a passion for entrepreneurship, having started a number of businesses in his life and growing one to 100 employees.  After becoming a coach, he saw the struggles that coaches face while trying to build their bu...

WARNING: This is part story, part lesson, part RANT! It's bad enough that we have to put up with robocalls, political ads, and polls, and just random hang-ups, but when a real salesperson calls and just won't take no for an answer, it's hard not to be angry and rude. I understand that people have a job to do, but I have learned over the years that closing a sale is more about listening than just talking. That was not the case with one call (actually multiple and a LinkedIn message from the same person today. There are three points...