Put a crowd of business owners in one room.

And it doesn’t take long before their competitive natures rear their ugly heads.

Especially when they all are vying for clients in the same industry.

Everyone keeps their trade secrets close to their vest for fear of competitors stealing their ideas and potential customers.

Usually…

But not so at the inaugural conference of Infusionsoft Certified Partners (PartnerCon as it's known now.) There were only 75 of us, but there must have been more than 1000 years of collective marketing expertise in a room at all times.

During breakout sessions, meals, lobby chats, shuttle rides to the airport…every [...]

"One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do. Two can be as bad as one. It's the loneliest number since the number one."

The 60's group Three Dog Night made these words immortal, but it's the entrepreneur that feels the cruel sting of being dumped just as painfully.

If you are over-dependent an any one thing in your business life, you will suffer for this vulnerability.  One key person, one skill, one product or service, one technology.  Each leads to instability - and instability cripples.

Just using online or offline marketing strategies exclusively is a recipe for a disaster.

The worst [...]

One of the biggest concerns we hear from our clients is that their emails are not getting delivered to the contacts on their lists.

And that's utterly frustrating when a large part of your marketing model comes from email marketing.

Now ‘fess up…we all want to brag a little (ok, a lot) when we have big lists.  Nobody wants to broadcast their list size to their peers when their list is tiny.

Folks, here’s where size don’t mean a thing when your list ain't clean – it doesn’t matter that you have 40,000 contacts when 75% or more don’t even open your email.

In fact, [...]

Combine growing up in the 6o's and being a marketer...and the television drama Mad Men holds a certain fascination.

Set in the 60's, the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency on Madison Avenue in New York City focuses on everyone's favorite television ad executive - Don Draper.

You know...the guy who said, “You are the product. You feeling something. That’s what sells. Not them. Not sex. They can’t do what we do, and they hate us for it.”  (from Season 2, episode "For Those Who Think Young")

Draper is the quintessential ad man (and ladies man) and key player who lives for the next [...]

Building your business requires a strong “inner game.”

Every winning sports coach has put his own spin on what he considers crucial to success. Each has made his or her mark with what it takes to dominate their sport.

Don Shula's Everyone's a Coach: The Business Secrets of High Performance Coaching is an excellent book on leadership and winning from an extremely successful businessman and NFL coach.

In his book, Shula lays out what he considers the five most important qualities of a leader using a simple acronym COACH:

Confidence-driven (never compromise your beliefs) Over-learning (practice until it's perfect) Audible-ready (know when to change) Consistency (respond predictably [...]

Small business owners wear a lot of hats.

Adding online marketer to the collection can be more than slightly intimidating.  The learning curve can be steep. And unless you have someone to show you the ropes, the feeling of overwhelm quickly sets in.

We invited one of our coachig students to share her story.

Do you sometimes struggle just to get through the day? And do you have frequent struggles in your online business?

Most likely, you answered, "Yes!"

If you are like me, you are probably used to struggle and frustration especially when dealing with our online businesses.

I mean...we all know about trials [...]