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643: Fueled By Culture: Create Internal Change, Discover Relentless Persistence, and Empower Brands with Influencer Marketing with Keynote Speaker Marcus Damas
Marcus Damas is an American Entrepreneur, retired professional basketball player, and devoted husband and father based in New York City. Before playing in Sweden’s professional basketball league for the Solna Vikings, Marcus played Small Forward for the Towson Tigers, Towson University’s NCAA Division 1 team in the state of Maryland, where he is on the top 20 all time scoring list. Following his basketball career, Marcus returned to New York City to pursue a career in creative leadership as the Founder and CEO of Fueled by Culture.
Fueled by Culture is a burgeoning creative marketing agency that specializes in connecting and empowering brands with influencers through innovative content and experiential event programming. FBC clients and partners include Avion, Lyft, Hooch, and Postmates to name a few. Marcus Damas is also a keynote speaker at marketing conferences around the world.
Quotes
“Corn grows from corn, apples grow from apples. So, goodness comes to you if everything around you is good, and negativity comes to you if everything around you or within you is negative.” - Marcus Damas
“Every part of the journey is a part of the journey forward.” - Marcus Damas
“Circumstance does not make the man or woman; the man or woman makes themselves.” - Marcus Damas
Takeaways
05:34 Networking and taking calculated risks can open unexpected opportunities in business.
08:54 Entrepreneurship can be a powerful path for creating generational change, especially for underrepresented communities.
09:58 Building a company culture based on core values like family, honesty, and hard work creates a strong foundation for success.
13:23 Personal growth and internal change are crucial to overcoming societal limitations.
18:49 Persistence and targeting the right connections are key to landing significant business partnerships.
Resources
- Fueled by Culture: Driving Conversations. Sparking Progress. Cultivating Change.
- Marcus Damas on Instagram
- Marcus Damas on X (Twitter)
- Connect with Marcus Damas on LinkedIn
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:34 — 19.9MB) | Embed
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642: Lead Generation and Marketing Strategy: Direct Mail, Search Engine Optimization, and Pay Per Click Advertising with Ryan Cote
Ryan Cote is the Director of Digital Services and Partner at Ballantine, a third-generation family-owned direct mail and digital marketing company based out
of Fairfield, NJ. With Ballantine since 2003, a family-owned business started in 1966 by his great-uncle, Ryan now manages the growing digital marketing division.
From lead generation to marketing strategy for small businesses, Ryan and his company rise above the get-featured-quick schemes so often attributed to digital marketing. He loves to geek out on technical marketing talk as well as work with real-world business owners about growing their book of business in today’s online world.
Quotes
“It's pretty exciting that we can reach people through so many different channels now with the technology available to us.” - Ryan Cote
“Nonprofits use a lot of direct mail because their typical donors tend to be a bit older and often respond better to mail.” - Ryan Cote
“If you're a business owner, you're a marketer. You often don't know what you don't know. I'm still surprised at how many clients we get whose websites are not mobile responsive, and where the calls to action are very weak or missing altogether.” - Ryan Cote
Takeaways
04:07 Repeated marketing touches across multiple channels are crucial for capturing customer attention.
07:29 Direct mail can be highly effective when businesses get creative with formats like video mailers and clear envelopes.
13:39 Integrated marketing campaigns that combine print, email, and social media can significantly improve customer engagement.
16:08 Different industries and demographics respond differently to marketing channels, so understanding your target audience is key.
21:01 A strong website with mobile responsiveness and clear call-to-actions is the foundation of successful digital marketing.
Resources
- Ballantine: If your company is in need of direct mail production, Ballantine’s marketing experts offer strategic consultation and flawless execution to help your brand connect with customers and prospects.
- Connect with Ryan Cote on LinkedIn
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:10 — 23.2MB) | Embed
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641: Scientific Advertising: Find Your Target Audience, Split Test, and Improve Conversions with Facebook Ads Expert Mojca Zove
Mojca Zove is the owner of Super Spicy Media and a Facebook Ads Expert that helps +7-figure companies generate leads and increase profits with Facebook Ads.
She's the author of The Facebook Ads Manual, a book that helped hundreds of people launch their first successful Facebook Advertising campaign. She recently launched her online course - The Science of Facebook Ads.
She's an international speaker. She appeared on MicroConf, Double Your Freelancing Conference, Seanwes Conf, BaconBiz and others.
Quotes
“I'm never going to guarantee success, because no one can guarantee it. What I can guarantee is that I will do my best to earn more and to help you get more profit.” - Mojca Zove
“I always share everything, and I encourage my clients to do the same. That's how people find you, and your product naturally becomes the direction they go in later.” - Mojca Zove
“You don't want to go really complex at the beginning because you'll get overwhelmed really fast, the results won't be as tangible, and you won't get the quality results you need to determine which direction to go next.” - Mojca Zove
Takeaways
02:44 Honesty and personal connection matter more than flashy promises in digital marketing.
06:33 Start Facebook ad campaigns with valuable content that solves real audience problems.
10:57 Experiment with different content formats to understand what your audience prefers.
13:40 Track both Facebook engagement and website conversion rates to optimize ad performance.
16:52 Build marketing funnels step by step, beginning with awareness and gradually moving to sales.
Resources
- Super Spicy Media: We help 7-figure businesses take their content game up a notch
- The Science of Facebook Ads: Sign up for the waiting list below and get notified when enrollment opens again.
- Connect with Moja Zove on LinkedIn
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640: Social Media Business Strategy, Branded Content and LinkedIn Trends with Content Coach Marisa Cali
Marisa Cali is a seasoned digital marketing professional with 12 years of experience specializing in social media strategy and content coaching. She runs her own company, Be Present (formerly All the Social), where she helps B2B businesses and startup founders develop effective personal branding and social media approaches. With a strong background in graphic design and digital marketing, Marisa focuses on helping small teams create authentic and strategic online content.
Quotes
“I have the ability to see the big picture when it comes to figuring out the needs of the client. I ensure that the tasks we implement and the strategies we devise align with their goals.” - Marisa Cali
“Sometimes it takes a while for people to trust you and want to work with you. It's not that quick.” - Marisa Cali
“Figuring out how you can be in front of people, besides just posting static content, is important. People want to see and hear you.” - Marisa Cali
Takeaways
04:39 Authentic online presence matters more than polished, impersonal branding.
08:38 Social media strategy should always start with clear, measurable business goals.
10:21 Consistent content creation requires understanding your target audience and platform dynamics.
19:22 Video content is crucial for connecting with audiences across different platforms.
21:36 LinkedIn is a powerful tool for B2B businesses seeking quality lead generation.
Resources
- Be Present (formerly All the Social): BE PRESENT FOR THE CONVERSATIONS THAT MATTER
- Connect with Marisa Cali on LinkedIn
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:32 — 24.5MB) | Embed
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639: Enhance Performance and Efficiency In Your Organization Using Assessments, Scoring, and Software with Natasha Davis
Natasha Davis, is a Registered Nurse, Branding Strategist and Corporate Trainer. As a certified expert in email & social media marketing and branding, she thrives on fixing problems and eliminating frustrations for companies and their executives. Over the past 15 years, Natasha has worked with several companies and professionals to assist them in enhancing their business potential, brand equity, brand loyalty, cash flow, customer satisfaction and marketing strategy through the power of impactful branding. Because she uncomplicates the most complicates aspects in business, her clients affectionately refer to her as "The Chief Visionary" Natasha has the ability to quickly identify issues, find solutions, get results and improve outcomes.
Quotes
“Duplicity is ultimately waste, and waste has no return on investment at all—never.” - Natasha Davis
“If you don't have customers, you don't have a business. And if you have unhappy customers, you're not going to have a business for long.” - Natasha Davis
“I don't want to take anyone's money if they don't get what they want. We work very hard to serve people, and that's really important.” - Natasha Davis
Takeaways
04:55 Solving internal problems is often more important than seeking new customers when facing business challenges.
16:15 Small inefficiencies in daily work processes can accumulate to significant financial waste over time.
22:16 Creating a successful business solution requires extensive testing, user feedback, and a phased rollout approach.
25:49 Consultants should focus on providing clear, immediate value and reducing client uncertainty about their services.
29:15 Effective business relationships are like matchmaking - both parties must determine if they are a good fit for each other.
Resources
- Previous Appearance
- Impact Branding Consulting: Strategic Branding & Business Consulting
- Connect with Natasha E. Davis, MBA-M, RN-MSN, CSMA, CEME on LinkedIn
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638: Get a Website That Converts: Implement a Martial Arts Mindset into Your Business to Create a Powerful Marketing Message, Manage Stress and Become Your Greatest Self with Dr. Joe Schaefer
Dr. Joe Schaefer, Co-Founder of Motiliti, is a digital marketing expert with an incredibly diverse background. In addition to owning a digital marketing agency for over 11 years and working personally with hundreds of business clients, he has a PhD in Neurophysiology from the University of Texas. His clients often call him Doctor Joe, but hundreds other people call him Master Joe as he is also a 7th degree black belt in kung Fu and operates a school of 300+ students in Austin. He has has trained and taught for over 30 years. He brings these various disciplines together into every strategy and tactic he uses to take his business clients to their next level in web marketing.
Quotes
“Business owners often have a huge blind spot when it comes to their website and marketing. They need someone from outside their organization to shake things up a little.” - Dr. Joe Schaefer
“We all know exactly what our website should look like if we were able to set aside our biases and view it as we do every other website.” - Dr. Joe Schaefer
“Anything worth doing is a long journey where you're always kind of restarting it again.” - Dr. Joe Schaefer
Takeaways
05:55 Physical exercise is crucial for entrepreneurs to manage stress, recharge mental batteries, and maintain peak performance.
10:24 When designing a website, prioritize clear conversion goals over aesthetic design - focus on what action you want visitors to take.
19:59 Every website visitor's primary question is usually about pricing, so make it easy and upfront.
22:19 Effective marketing sometimes means making people slightly uncomfortable or even angry, which signals you're saying something meaningful.
28:49 Business growth is like martial arts training: expect challenges, set realistic expectations, and understand success takes consistent effort over time.
31:47 Compare your website with competitors' sites and critically ask yourself why someone would choose your business over others.
Resources
- Motiliti: Unlock the Power of Digital Marketing—once and for all | Austin SEO & Austin Digital Marketing Agency
- Check out Dr. Joe Schaefer Books on Amazon
- Follow Joe Schaefer on X (Twitter)
- Connect with Dr, Joe Schaefer on LinkedIn
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:59 — 30.4MB) | Embed
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637: Hire a Full-Time Assistant in the Philippines: Outsource Forum Posting, Programming, Graphic Design, Customer Support and More with John Jonas
John Jonas has helped thousands of entrepreneurs succeed in their business by doing outsourcing differently. He created and runs OnlineJobs.ph, the largest website for finding Filipino virtual workers, with over half a million Filipino resumes and hundreds of thousands of employers from around the world using it. He works about 17 hours per week, choosing to spend his time with his family rather than working.
Quotes
“The thing that really changes people is that there's outsourcing that people know and don't care about because it's kind of subpar. However, there's a different approach that most people aren't aware of. When I stumbled upon it 15 years ago, it changed my life.” - John Jonas
“Once you have this person, you're teaching them more and more. As things start to connect and click with them, you'll need to spend less time with them, and they'll become more capable.” - John Jonas
“The biggest cultural issue you'll run into is that Filipinos want to make you happy. It's an inherent cultural trait, but they also describe themselves as shy. When they say 'we're shy,' it's really about not wanting to lose face.” - John Jonas
Takeaways
06:04 The real breakthrough in outsourcing comes from committing to a full-time worker, even when you're unsure if you can keep them consistently busy.
12:13 Training employees takes time, but creates long-term value and loyalty that outweighs initial investment.
18:32 Hiring full-time workers from the Philippines can dramatically reduce your workload and increase business efficiency.
22:27 Outsourcing works best when you choose tasks you already know how to do, allowing you to teach and transfer skills effectively.
26:10 Cultural understanding is critical when working with international teams, especially recognizing communication patterns and expectations.
32:50 The goal of outsourcing is to buy back your time and shift from working in your business to working on your business.
Resources
- OnlineJobs.ph: World's Largest And Safest Marketplace For Finding Rock Star Filipino Workers
- Connect with John Jonas on LinkedIn
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:12 — 32.4MB) | Embed
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636: Move Beyond Ego to Become a Kind Communicator, Have Compassion and Discover Self-Awareness to Achieve Your True Potential with Elizabeth Barry
Elizabeth Barry is an author, marketing executive and a badass leadership coach. She teaches people self-love, exceptional communication skills and how to live a life fulfilled, both in and out of the office. For over a decade, she's taught self-branding workshops and helped leaders discover their business BEST through the art of powerful communication, personal branding, marketing and PR. She's devised a 2018 coaching mastermind program that transforms lives, unblocks energies and helps amazing CEOs, managers and Founders engage in discovering and rediscovering their creative life powers.
Quotes:
“The idea of owning vulnerability, whether speaking less or speaking up, is about being a kind and compassionate communicator. It means using less power, less demand, less force, and more authenticity in who you are. It's not necessarily about speaking about feelings but owning them and responding rather than reacting.” - Elizabeth Barry
“We can never blame anyone else for the things we're not getting. We have to look within, and it all starts exactly there, inside.” - Elizabeth Barry
“There's nothing better than learning that other people have done the same thing so that we don't feel alone.” - Elizabeth Barry
Takeaways:
01:30 Personal and professional development starts with looking inward and understanding your communication patterns.
02:10 Getting out of your own way requires understanding and owning your personal vulnerabilities.
06:35 Effective communication means listening more and speaking less with intentional, compassionate words.
17:44 Professional growth happens through small, consistent steps of self-awareness and boundary-setting.
22:59 Fear of vulnerability often prevents people from recognizing their true potential and worth.
Resources
- Beyond Ego (Podcast)
- Elizabeth Barry Consulting (Official Site)
- The Kind Communicator: Kindness, Compassion and Wisdom for all Business Leaders (Book)
- Own Your Vulnerability: Become a Self-Loving Powerful Woman: A Woman’s Guide to Renewal Through Life, Self-love, Career and Spirituality (Book)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:30 — 24.5MB) | Embed
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635: Influencer Marketing: Observe Your Competitors, Grow Your Location Based Business, and Think Outside the Box with Brand Evangelist Rev Ciancio
Rev Ciancio is a Senior Marketing, Branding and Digital Strategist with 20 years of experience in digital marketing and business development, specializing in hospitality marketing, content and local SEO. He has led many clients to new levels of local, national and international success in the hospitality, financial service and entertainment sectors.
He is also former agency owner as well as a former New York City bar owner. Rev is an “expert burger taster” and pens hospitality and marketing tips on his Instagram @revciancio as well as his LinkedIn Profile.
Quotes:
“Be awesome at two things and outsource everything else.” - Rev Ciancio
“You are failing your business if you do not manage your online listings. Three out of four transactions for a business happen online on one of those sites before it ever happens on a business's website. So if you're not managing that information, you're basically letting the internet decide where your customer should go.” - Rev Ciancio
“Having a great website is important, but managing your information everywhere it lives is even more important.” - Rev Ciancio
Takeaways:
05:48 Success comes from being skilled at your core craft while understanding enough about business to make smart hiring choices.
08:48 Track your business metrics closely and recognize when performance stalls, as this signals the need for strategic changes.
16:26 Avoid complex solutions and focus on executing 3-4 simple, targeted strategies that can help your business move forward.
21:07 Before trying advanced marketing tactics, ensure you've covered fundamental marketing bases like email lists and social media posts.
29:08 For location-based businesses, managing online listings accurately is critical since most customer transactions start with online research.
Resources
- Foodie Tribe (Website)
- Rev Ciancio (Yext Profile)
- Rev Ciancio (Instagram)
- Rev Ciancio (Twitter)
- Rev Ciancio (LinkedIn)
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634: Fearless Wealth: Money Mindset, Question the Obvious, Find Extreme Stability and Implement Powerfully Simple Investing with CFP and NLP Expert RC Peck
RC Peck is a certified Financial Planner (CFP), a Registered Investment Advisor and a Master NLP practitioner. RC Peck is also the author of Fearless Wealth, Simple Steps to Growing and Harvesting Money.
RC Peck is the founder of Fearless Wealth, a San Francisco-based investment education company that delivers unique workshops, training and presentations to the public and companies worldwide. His passion is giving people the facts, the tools and the specific steps necessary to become self-sufficient at managing and understanding their money. However, RC's approach is not what one might expect. He starts where people look last - at themselves. He believes that growing one's money has to start with one's behaviors about money.
Born in Cincinnati, he started trading his own account when he was 15 years old. Since then he's traded commodities in New York City; designed an investment method that protects and grows money more efficiently than Wall Street; and has interviewed hundreds of traders, investors and millionaires on four continents for one purpose - to find out what works. Based on his ten years of financial research, RC published Fearless Wealth Simple Steps to Grow and Harvest Your Money and founded Fearless Wealth Workshops in 1997. You can find RC's work on his website at FearlessWealth.com.
Quotes:
“The main belief system coming is that investing and the economy is incredibly complicated. They build this narrative around how complicated investing is. They say that because it's so complicated, the solution or the answer has to be equally complicated.” - RC Peck
“Most advisors, when it comes to actually growing money, greatly underperform what I call the free market rate of return. So they're not really adding the value they claim you need.” - RC Peck
“There are periods when the market clearly needs a major correction. If you study the transition between one asset to another, once you see it, you can't unsee it. You'll realize, 'Oh my gosh, I've overcomplicated this.'” - RC Peck
Takeaways:
07:26 Most successful financial strategies involve moderation, not extreme approaches.
12:13 Money decisions are not about being passive or active, but about understanding market conditions.
21:15 Opening financial statements won't kill you, despite the fear and anxiety you might feel.
25:44 Making money and keeping money require completely different skills and behaviors.
27:37 Being dynamic and knowing when to switch financial strategies is crucial for long-term success.
Resources
- FearlessWealth (Official Site)
- RC Peck (Twitter)
- RC Peck (LinkedIn)
- RC Peck (YouTube)
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