The Idea Climbing Podcast Mark J. Carter

If you want to accelerate the growth of your business, storytelling is one of the best ways to do it. That’s what I discuss in this episode with my guest, John Hetherington. John is an entrepreneur and international speaker teaching entrepreneurs how to leverage storytelling to grow their business.



 



 



After John graduated with a degree in electrical engineering his career started in financial services. He believed that you get further by working harder. Work long hours, be first at the desk and last to leave. That’s what he did and he watched people getting promoted over him time and time again. What he realized is that you share your value through stories. That realization lead him to start his own business. It became teaching people that success is all about how you convey your story, share your message and put your value across.



John studied a lot of movies that demonstrated the classic “hero’s journey”. What he found is that doesn’t always translate into the business world. John created frameworks which break down how to tell stories and get your message across.



It Starts with You



Before you share stories with other people it starts with the story that you tell yourself. If the story in your head is I can only achieve this, I can only achieve a certain level of revenue, ultimately you’re limiting your behaviors and your potential. The technology sector was all about finding problems and fixing them. When John started his business, he realized that to succeed you also have to focus on opportunities and share your grander vision. The story really starts with what you tell yourself every day, every morning.



The Four “P’s” to Create a Powerful Start to Your Day



It starts with a daily productivity plan by setting yourself up for success. Before you start with email, before you start with meetings, sit down and write out what you want to achieve for the day. If you’re starting your day off the right way the rest of your day tends to flow better. When you immediately dive into emails and receive a bad email, that sets the tone for the day. You need to prevent that from happening. You start by connecting with your purpose, then the project(s) you’re going to focus on, then the people who do you need to reach out to, and finally your priorities, or your to-do list. From there you set aside time on your calendar for those four “P’s” and you’re off to a great start.



We also discuss:



How to create an “insight sandwich” to get your message across in presentations.

How to create successful growth projects.

How to craft your story to appeal to different types of people.

The importance of having and sharing a clear vision.

Why you need to tell stories instead of just sharing data.

What makes a good “hook” to get your audiences’ attention.

The first thing you need to do after you get your audiences' attention.

The components of a great story.



…and other golden nuggets of advice!



You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”







 



 



 



 



About the Guest







 



 



 



 



 



 



John Hetherington is a Technology Strategist, International Speaker and founder of We Deliver Your Vision.



He is an expert in using to Technology to scale business and grow revenue and he helps Entrepreneurs use Storytelling to accelerate business growth.



John has 10 years strategic consulting experience with Deloitte and Ernst & Young and 25 years delivering technology projects in UK and Canada. He lives in Calgary but travels around the world for his ...

If you want to create a online marketing strategy, you need to successfully combine strategies with tactics. I discuss how to do that with my guest, Erin Marcus. Erin is the founder and CEO of Conquer Your Business, an international company helping driven entrepreneurs and small business owners get the financial and emotional freedom they need to build a business and a life they're proud of.



 



 



First Things First



One of the important things to understand as an entrepreneur is your business will never outgrow you. The idea of the inner work never being done is just important to accept. Erin works at the intersection of where what you need to do meets who you need to be to do it. When working on your marketing plans and business plans you need to rearrange what you’re doing to uncover new opportunities. The truth of the matter is that the plan doesn’t matter if you can’t take action based on the plan.



If you can’t do the things that it would take to get things done, then those are the wrong things, and they need to change. As Erin works with her clients who are experiencing amazing growth in their business, and what she sees happen time and time again is instead of looking for what you need to do, and we’re talking about marketing tactics here, you really need to ask yourself “Why that particular tactic?”. Tactics are almost the last things you figure out. It’s strategy first, tactics later every time.



Success Lies with Your Strategies



Many entrepreneurs try to solve business issues with marketing tactics and every business issue needs marketing tactics as part of their strategy. You need to know what you want first. For example, “I want to grow my business” means getting more clients. Then the question becomes “How do I get those clients?" I’ll try XYZ marketing tactic. She calls them one-size-fits-all-soon-to-be-obsolete-insta-tactics. If you ask yourself “Why this tactic?” None of those tactics are wrong or bad, they’re all fantastic; as long as they’re the right ones for you. By answering “Why this tactic?” and aligning them with a strategy, you can decide which ones to engage and which ones to leave behind. That’s where you start.



In this episode we also discuss:



How your “inner work” helps you decide which strategies and tactics to adopt.

Why the “inner work" is making your decisions from a place of abundance, expansion, and growth.

The structure of making good marketing decisions.

How not to become susceptible to every “guru’s” marketing advice.

How to come from a place of inspiration instead of desperation.

How to find and ask the “right why”.

How to learn about and notice your own “buzzy roller coaster” feelings.

How to pick the right marketing strategies and tactics and say no to the rest.

Why your business must have a strong online presence and how to create one.

How to choose which online platforms to build your business on.



…and more golden nuggets of advice!



You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”







 



 



 



 



About the Guest







 



 



 



 



 



 



Erin Marcus is the founder and CEO of Conquer Your Business, an international company helping driven entrepreneurs and small business owners get the financial and emotional freedom they need to build a business and a life they're proud of.



Having made the successful leap from corporate executive to entrepreneur, Erin uses that experience, along with her MBA education and street smart upbringing, to help her clients reach heights they never dreamed possible.

Creating a stronger, more profitable online presence takes skill. We discuss how to do that in this episode with my guest Michael Buzinski.



Michael is a decorated US Air Force veteran, he has built several small businesses (two multi-million dollar ventures) and marketed for over 1200 companies, best-selling author, and host of the top 1% podcast “the Buzzworthy Marketing Show”.



 



 



Reluctance to be in the food industry as a teenager pushed Michael into sales and, eventually, marketing. Many people start in sales to get into marketing because that’s where you can start without any experience. If you have the gift of gab, you can pretty much sell anything, especially if you have empathy and you can be taught. Michael was a very teachable person at a young age. As he got higher into the sales world, he ended up moving into marketing. Michael loves marketing because it is a continual learning adventure.



After his tour in the Air Force Michael became a small business owner. Because of this, he has a huge respect for small business owners and entrepreneurs because he knows how hard it is to get started and there’s nothing out there helping us. Small business owners are on their own. They never say no, they never give up, they fight for what they believe in and those are the people that he likes to be around.



The Biggest Marketing Mistake that Entrepreneurs Make Online



The biggest thing, especially now with AI, is that people overcomplicate things. Everybody is looking for the next big thing in marketing, so they end up with a lot of random tactics. Michael believes that “Sound strategy aways beats blind tactics”. When Michael started his marketing firm back in 2005, what we have today with social media tools for marketing was nonexistent. Now we have all these shiny things. Unfortunately, people don’t have a good strategy and so marketers and agencies for years have overcomplicated the process. It comes from the enterprise level of looking at marketing where there’s so many moving parts. At that level there are too many complexities in tracking Key performance Indicators (KPIs) for marketing initiatives.



Small business owners don’t need all those KPIs. They can get more traffic and even double their traffic and profits with the right strategies. All the traffic in the world means nothing if it doesn't convert. We discuss how to do that.



We cover topics such as:



Where a sound marketing strategy begins and how to get started.

How to define a clear target market.

What you should be tracking online to learn what’s working and what’s not working.

What vanity metrics are and why they’re misleading.

The three KPIs that have the most impact on your business and marketing initiatives.

How to double your revenue using three key strategies.

How to know what marketing tactics to stop

How to recognize your target market’s buying cycle and map out your clients’ value journey.



…and other golden nuggets of advice!



You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”







 



 



 



 



About the Guest







 



 



 



 



 



 



Michael Buzinski is a decorated US Air Force veteran, serial entrepreneur, digital marketing thought leader, international speaker, best-selling author, and host of the top 1% podcast the Buzzworthy Marketing Show. He has built several small businesses (two multi-million dollar ventures), and marketed for over 1200 companies.



Dubbed a “marketing visionary” by the American Marketing Association, Michael is on a mission to eradicate entreprene...

There’s a LOT more to improv than entertaining shows. It has many implications to create networking and communication experiences in the business world. That’s what I discuss in this episode with my guest, Mike Weaver.



Mike’s been an actor in improv theater since 2003 and a member of the Applied Improvisation Network since 2007.  He leverages his coaching certifications, membership in the Applied Improvisation Network, and over 20 years of pastoral leadership to powerfully serve his clients.



 



 



A couple decades ago Mike out getting ice cream with his son and saw a flier on the wall for an improv workshop for professionals. It promised to improve your public speaking skills, enhance communication skills, make you a better leader, and so on. Mike thought “That all applies to me, I don’t know about improv, I think I’ll take a class.” It was in a studio below some theaters in Columbus, Ohio, taught by an actress from New York City. After that first improv class Mike was hooked. He realized at that moment he had been “doing improv” all his life, but he didn’t have a name for it until then.



Improv gave Mike permission now to be himself, co-create experiences, have fun, and make something meaningful in a creative way with other people that are all in the process together. Immediately after his first class he signed up for the second level class and from there kept taking classes. To this day he still takes classes because there’s always something to learn.



What You Might Not Know about Improv



A lot of times people immediately associate comedy with improv. While improv can be funny, it doesn’t have to be. Mike’s seen comedy improv, dramatic improv, and everything in between. It’s all about having an honest conversation in the moment and that honesty is what got him. The biggest misconception is that improv is just about being funny, or its about standup comedy and being clever on stage and that’s not it at all.



Another misconception is people thinking “I can’t take improv because I’m not in theater, or I haven’t taken acting classes, etc.” That’s not it. It’s about showing up and being present. That’s a human skill, it’s not necessarily a skill that professionals have. What happens is you start sharpening that skill as you learn.  Everyone can have those skills to listen, be present, to focus, and more.



We also discuss:



Everyday human skills you can learn through improv.

How improv teaches you to be present and live in the moment.

How improv can teach entrepreneurs listening skills for client meetings.

The difference between traditional improv and applied improv for business.

What improv can teach you about creating successful collaborative experiences.

How to use improv in everyday conversations.

How improv applies to networking in the business world.

The power of responding to people instead of reacting to them.



…and more golden nuggets of advice!



You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”







 



 



 



 



About the Guest







 



 



 



 



 



 



Mike Weaver is the author of "Unstuck: Amazing Momentum for Christian Leaders through Improv" and has been a certified coach since 2015, specializing in empowering leaders to maximize their potential, amplify their influence, and leave a lasting legacy.



He’s been an actor in improv theater since 2003 and a member of the Applied Improvisation Network since 2007. He leverages his coaching certifications, membership in the Applied Improvisation Network,

Overcoming adversity and creating peak performance states often go hand in hand. That’s what I discuss in this episode with my guest, Jennifer Watson.



Jennifer, founder of Watson Worldwide, overcame years of debilitating depression to become an integrative physical therapist, entrepreneur of 6+ figure businesses, a TEDx speaker and now an international speaker & coach.



 



 



Jennifer has been a high performer for most of her life. She went to the University of Wisconsin, Madison on a full ride scholarship for track and field and became a two-time All American in middle distance. That became the beginning of her journey in being a high performer as an adult. She had achieved the traditional form of high performance. Unfortunately, what this often looked like was burn yourself to the ground, push through the emotions, push through the pain physically, mentally, and emotionally. Rinse and repeat.



That worked for a while and what happened when she went into other areas of her life as a high performer, she started breaking down mentally, emotionally, and physically in the personal and business world.



She stepped back and asked, “Is there a way to sustainably high perform during growth and adversity and get more acceleration in her performance by doing it a different way?” The answer was absolutely “Yes!”. That led to her career as a successful entrepreneur and coach to other high performers.



Climbing Out of the Hole and Repairing the Breakdown



At first, the more Jennifer pushed the more she felt anxiety and depression. She often felt alone, mental health was more taboo then than it is now. Now there are more resources available to you. She picked herself up by the bootstraps, did her research and stepped out and spoke with people about it. She found modalities to help people accelerate getting out of the proverbial hole and, before she started to sink again, she remedied the problem, so it didn’t become a big problem. That lead her to new strategies that she now teaches to other high performers.



In this episode we discuss:



How to first pick yourself up by the mental health bootstraps.

How to combine traditional and wholistic approaches to mental and physical health.

The art and science of “neuro-rewiring” and how to apply it in your life.

How to grow during times of adversity.

How to shift from just “feeling good” to a mental and physical state of peak performance.

How to change your relationship with yourself by changing how you talk about yourself.

How to stay higher and longer in a peak performance state.

Why doing less on stressful days can lead to a healthier environment.

How to create a calm state of mind that leads to higher productivity.



…and other golden nuggets of advice!



You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”







 



 



 



 



About the Guest







 



 



 



 



 



 



Jennifer Watson, MPT, I.M.T.,C., speaker, healer, and visionary on a mission to help leaders heal and accelerate their deeper purpose of impact through shifting their mental-emotional state and optimizing healthy high-performance leadership.



As a former D1 athlete and 2x All-American, Jennifer, founder of Watson Worldwide, overcame years of debilitating depression to become an integrative physical therapist, entrepreneur of 6+ figure businesses, a TEDx speaker and now an international speaker & coach. Jennifer’s ultimate goal in life is to be known for the healing she gave, the love she showed and the hope she gave to all that they can truly live thei...

Even small businesses can become trusted brands with the right strategies. I discuss how to do that in this episode with my guest, Bryan Kramer.



Called the “Zen Master to Digital Marketers” by Forbes, Bryan is a renowned business strategist, global keynote speaker, executive trainer and coach, investor, two-time bestselling author including a TOP 150 USA best-selling book, and Forbes contributor.



 



 



Bryan came up with the topic of the brand connection to business owners because every level of branding (including the US government, go figure) is at the lowest level it’s ever been. Bryan saw an opportunity to reshape what trust means to us.



Why Trust is at an All Time Low and What Can Be Done About it



The idea around Bryan’s research about why trust is really low stems from the fact that, today, we have so many options. We’re the “fickle customer era”. We don’t have to go to the product anymore, the product comes to us. If you’re a service provider that makes a mistake or takes trust for granted, it’s easy for us to highlight that so much more with social media. When someone has a bad experience and they go to social media, it makes us as viewers to think “I had a similar experience. Maybe I should think about switching services.”



The brand loyalty that we once knew has dissipated. Social media is a magnifying glass on the fickle customer. Brand relationships now go beyond the traditional “raving fan” because of accessibility. We want deeper relationships with brands these days, almost like a best friend. When we have that best friend relationship that’s when we’re going to be brand loyal.



In this episode we also discuss:



The starting point for even smaller entrepreneurs to become trusted brands.

The three pillars that all trusted brands share.

Why simplicity rules when building your brand.

How to bake the “best friend effect” into your brand experience.

Mistakes entrepreneurs make while building their brands and how to avoid them.

Strategies entrepreneurs can leverage to pass the “Trust Barometer Test”.

Why there is no way to fake trust into your marketing.



…and other golden nuggets of advice!



You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”







 



 



 



 



About the Guest







 



 



 



 



 



 



 



Called the “Zen Master to Digital Marketers” by Forbes, Bryan Kramer is a renowned business strategist, global keynote speaker, executive trainer and coach, investor, two-time bestselling author including a TOP 150 USA best-selling book, and Forbes contributor.



Bryan also created a global movement and is known for his keynotes, book, and talks on “There Is No BtoB or B2C: It’s Human-to-Human, H2H. He is the CEO of H2H Companies, an executive coaching company, and co-owner of PureMatter, a Silicon Valley marketing agency founded in 2001, which earned a spot as one of the “Fastest Growing Companies” three years in a row by the Silicon Valley Business Journal.



Learn more about Bryan here