Posts in Blog
My framework for starting a new business

After building up Lead Cookie & Content Allies to a decent state, I am beginning to look at building up a third company with a business partner this time.

As I am doing this, I realized I needed to look back on what worked with my two successful companies, and what failed in the many attempts I made on other ventures.

I’ve tried a lot of things before Lead Cookie, while running these companies, and I even made a lot of mistakes in the first couple of years of Content Allies.

So this post… well it’s kind of for myself. To document what I have learned so I don’t repeat these same mistakes on my third company.

But hopefully you find some value in it as well.

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How to build a process driven business

Processes… we all know it’s part of what we need to scale our businesses.

You hear people talk about Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s) all the time.

I’m a huge believer in SOP’s and have been using them for a while… yet recently I’ve had some mindset shifts in how I think about processes.

In this article, I am going to share the mindset shifts and how I now think about building a process driven business.

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How to grow your audience and email list on Linkedin

1,258 new connections in 3 months
1,777 new connections in 4 months
2,852 new connections in 6 months

Those are real numbers from many of the campaigns we have run for our clients at Lead Cookie

Those are thousands of new connections that will now see their content in their newsfeed, and we have set up funnels to drive many of those new connections to email list subscriptions. 

But how do you do it? 
How do you actually grow your audience on Linkedin?
And how do you drive those people to sign up for your email list?

In this post, I will give you the exact frameworks and scripts we use to do this for our clients at Lead Cookie.

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How to get more out of Linkedin Sales Navigator

Over the past year I have been heads down on mastering Linkedin Lead Generation. 

This has lead to the creation of Lead Cookie which is a done-for-you Linkedin Lead Generation service.

But it has also lead to creating quite a bit of training materials around how to use Linkedin better.

Linkedin is a bit of an overwhelming platform. There is so much you can do, and so many different features and aspects of the site.

That is why I wrote a How to Guide on Linkedin Lead Generation a while back which has helped so many people in terms of generating more leads on Linkedin.

But one thing I keep finding is that people are struggling to use Linkedin Sales Navigator which is a central tool for lead generation on Linkedin.

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Why you should steal your business ideas from others

Since starting up Lead Cookie I have had multiple people tell me “This is such a brilliant idea for a business.”

I always laugh because I have to tell them, “I didn’t think up any of this. I literally stole the concepts from others.”

No joke, almost everything about Lead Cookie is stolen. 

But the truth is, that is why this business has succeeded while almost every business I have had before has failed. 

In this article, I am going to share what I mean by the “stolen ideas” and give you a framework on how you can steal effectively and ethically.

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How to test and validate your value proposition fast

When I come across many agencies or consultants, they are stuck in this constant idea of “Do I niche down?” 

If you are asking yourself that question, then chances are the answer is Yes.

But that doesn’t mean that it’s easy. Finding an offer and value proposition that resonates with the market can be a challenge. 

Yet I have built a framework for building and testing value propositions at a rapid pace that I have used over and over for different clients and situations in the past.

In this article, I am going to share that framework with you and specific examples of value propositions that I have tested with this framework. I have both examples of failures and successes so you can see what worked and what didn’t.

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Why your marketing isn't working (Intro to the 3 M's)

It’s extremely common that agencies or consultants come to me sharing how their marketing simply isn’t working. They blame it on the tactics and seem to think that everyone who is teaching them tactics is a scam.

They try cold email… and fail.
They try Facebook ads… and fail.
They try content marketing… and fail.
They keep trying new things… and failing.

When your marketing is not producing results, there are 3 foundational elements that can be wrong with it. These are called the “Three M’s”.

In this article, I am going to share those Three M’s with you and give concrete examples of how to think about each one.

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The difference between inbound and outbound leads

Many customers who come to Lead Cookie only have experience closing inbound leads and referrals. Most have never run a cold email campaign, cold calling or Linkedin outreach campaign. 

How you handle an inbound lead vs an outbound lead is different in two fundamental ways.

  • Trust
  • Buying cycle 

My goal with this article is to dive into those differences and help improve your closing rate from outbound leads. 

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Why agency owners and consultants should maximize their personal income

There is a conversation that I seem to have over and over again with agency owners.

They tell me about their business, and how they are growing. 

Every year more revenue and more employees.

Yet their personal income is still low… 

They keep “reinvesting in the business” and if they could just make it over this next hump then their profits would go up and they could take home more pay.

This conversation happens time and time again…

In this article, I want to share why an agency owner with a low personal income need to make some serious changes.

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A simple trick to generate more leads on Linkedin

About six months ago, an agency owner told me about this interesting Linkedin tactic that he used to win one of their best clients. 

At first, I was skeptical on if the approach would actually work. So before recommending it to any of my clients or readers, I decided to give it a shot myself. 

After 6 months, I can now cite closing more than $10,000 worth of consulting business from this passive tactic. And as I write this, I am in negotiations with one of my biggest clients to date which could take that closed number to $60k or more. 

All of that revenue came from a simple lead generation tactic on Linkedin.

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My system for streamlining my podcast workflow
“Starting a podcast sounds great, but it just seems like a ton of work.”

That is what nearly all of my clients say to me when I propose the idea of launching their own podcast. 

Yet when I bring up the idea of starting a podcast to others, they have a built in belief that creating and running a podcast is going to take at on of time and energy.

The truth is, that is not the case. 

In this post I share my entire workflow on streamlining my podcast process. 

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A small mindset shift that can revolutionize your agency

You do not sell code.
You do not sell design.
You do not sell services.

Yet, this is how most people approach sales for their agency.
They treat what they do like a commodity.
And as a result, clients buy like a commodity.

They buy based on price.
They compare based on “features”.
And they treat you like an order taker.

Many agency owners just think that this is how it is…

But there is a better way.

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How to ask your clients for a testimonial and actually get it

Testimonials are powerful. Simply put, social proof is an essential component of any quality marketing materials or website.

As Robert Cialdini pointed out in his famous book Influence, Social Proof is one of the single most powerful forms of influence you can have.

But the problem is that most companies fail to ever ask their clients for a testimonial, or they simply don’t know how to approach it.

The truth is, it is extremely simple.

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Simplify your goal setting

At this time of year, it is inevitable that you will come across a handful of posts from various bloggers and publications about setting goals for 2017.

As you read through many of those, you may find yourself inspired, jacked up, and ready to dive head first into an epic new year!

And as a result, you may set a handful of big goals that would be difficult, if not entirely impossible to achieve.

Yet in this post, I want to present a different view on goal setting.

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