Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing » Podcast

Alex Kantrowitz joins us on the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast to discuss his new book 'Day One'. At Amazon, 'Day One' is code for inventing like a startup with little regard for legacy. Day Two is, in Jeff Bezos's own words, is 'stasis, followed by irrelevance, followed by excruciating, painful decline, followed by death.' Most companies today are set up for Day Two. They build advantages and defend them fiercely rather than invent the future. But Amazon and fellow tech titans Facebook, Google, and Microsoft are operating in Day One: they prioritize reinvention over tradition and collaboration over ownership.

Entrepreneur Steve Bousquet took his college job mowing lawns and transformed it into a successful business with thousands of customers. He stops by to talk about the learning curve that comes with founding your own company. As he shifted from technician to owner, he learned a lot of lessons about leadership, finance, culture-building, and more. He shares some of these lessons and talks about the importance of investing in you and your team's growth in order to build a company your customers love.

Business theorist, author, and speaker Alex Osterwalder discusses his two newest books, Testing Business Ideas and the upcoming The Invincible Company . Both books are part of a series focused on helping leaders undertake business modeling and testing within their organizations. Great business testing leads to true innovation, but most leaders don't understand how to apply the scientific method in their businesses. Osterwalder shares what any owner or entrepreneur can do to build their innovation muscle.

Entrepreneur, speaker, and author Mike Michalowicz sits down to discuss his latest book Fix This Next: Make the Vital Change that Will Level Up Your Business . All too often, Michalowicz sees businesses that are putting out fires or taking on the wrong challenges. He's developed a system for assessing a business's real needs that can help leaders and entrepreneurs hone in on the most pressing issues that, once fixed, free you up to create growth in your company.

Michael Bungay Stanier returns to the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast to discuss his latest book The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever . So many leaders feel great pressure to have all the answers. But in reality, when leaders embrace curiosity and pause before giving advice, they build much happier, healthier, more effective teams. Bungay Stanier shares why that is, and what leaders can do to cultivate their curiosity.

Mathew Sweezey, Principal of Marketing Insights at Salesforce, stops by the show to talk about the concept of context marketing. Mathew contends that the old, messaged-focused way of marketing has gone the way of the dodo. We've now entered the era of context marketing. He explains what exactly that means and provides tips to help small business owners and marketers succeed in this new environment.

Mark Graham and Bobby Lehew of commonsku, a company that creates software for the promotional products industry, are today's guests on the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. Promotional products are sometimes brushed aside as frivolous, but Graham and Lehew contend that when products are designed with intent and creativity, they can add tremendous value for a brand. Tune in to learn more about the power of a great promotional product and to hear stories of some great products in action.

Leadership expert, speaker, and author Mike Robbins has spent his career studying company culture and what goes in to building a successful organization. Robbins has identified the pillars that allow any team to grow trust and work together, and he shares them in his latest book We're All in This Together . On this episode, Robbins walks us through these pillars and shares some simple steps any leader can take to begin to craft a stronger company culture.

Rock Thomas is a motivational speaker, best-selling author, and podcaster. After achieving his own financial success, he looked around and noticed that many others who did well in business struggled in their personal lives. Realizing that financial success was only part of the picture, Thomas set out to motivate people to uncover ways to access their whole-life wealth - financial, physical, emotional, and spiritual. He stops by the podcast to share some inspiration for those of us who are looking to reframe the way we think about ourselves in order to achieve new levels of success.

Virtual tools to help facilitate remote work have suddenly become a major focus for many business owners. I've been using some great work-from-home-friendly tools for years, and I wanted to share my go-tos for everything from video recording to collaboration to file sharing. These tools can help you stay in touch in the immediate future, and you may find that you like them so much, you decide to keep them around even when business returns to normal.

Many small business owners struggle with copywriting. How do you create a message that resonates with your audience but doesn't come off as too salesy? Author, speaker, and marketing expert Anik Singal has helped hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. Today on the podcast, he shares his foolproof, 5-step process for writing copy that builds connection and gets you to the sale.

Stephen M. R. Covey, Global Practice Leader at the Global Speed of Trust Practice, visits the podcast to discuss his father's timeless book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The book was published decades ago but remains an incredible guide for individuals of all ages and backgrounds who want to learn how to achieve their goals by building connection and becoming more compassionate, thoughtful members of society.