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Jay Steinfeld launched Blinds.com, an e-commerce store, in 1996, eventually selling it to Home Depot in 2014. This bold but measured decision would characterize many of his subsequent career decisions. Listen in to hear Jay discuss how he is always learning, being mentored, and mentoring others, every day of his life - and how you should too! Episode Highlights [6:00] Jay shares how being a part of a barbershop quartet for 50 years has taught him many life and business skills, especially how to be on stage despite being an introvert.[8:03] If your employees need more skill at something, you should let them learn about it. Allow them to sit in on meetings from other departments, even if it isn’t their job. [9:37] If you want to move up in a company, do not view the path as a ladder. Instead, view yourself as a sponge. [11:38] Jay shares his definition of a mentor: anyone who systematically helps someone figure out NOT what they should DO but how they should THINK. Everyone who has someone working for them is a mentor. [17:54] Jay’s shares his keys to success in mentoring others.[28:57] Learn the difference between mentoring students vs mentoring a direct report.[33:35] Jay took the risk of breaking into the e-Commerce world in the very early days to sell blinds online.[44:19] Jay shares the journey of discovering his personal core values. Episode Links VistageBlinds.comThe University of Texas, BBA in Accounting ProgramGuest LinksLinkedInWebsiteTwitterPodcastsCafe InsiderAll In Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

Terri Hoffman is the CEO of Marketing Refresh, a digital agency that specializes in the construction and industrial industries. Follow along and learn about the many ways basketball, leadership, construction, and data audits have all come together to bring Terri through her career in digital marketing today! Episode Highlights[1:22] Being a member and captain of her college basketball team taught Terri about teamwork and accountability, skills she now uses daily when running her own agency.[6:50] To Terri, mentorship is about someone with more knowledge and experience, which you can go to for advice and counseling. They need to be someone with whom you can feel vulnerable and can be transparent without the worry of feeling judged. [8:27] Terri shares how her mentors helped her embody her leadership style, and how “rough and tough” doesn't really work in today’s business world. [15:26] Terri shares about an early mistake in her career with her first clients and how she rebounded.[20:47] Now, Terri mentors each of her employees. She has weekly one-on-one coaching calls where they discuss practical work matters and where they feel challenged and need extra support. [25:23] Terri shares why she loves small business consulting.[29:39] Ready. Aim. Aim. Aim. Aim. Aim. Aim. Fire. [32:35] How Terri helps clients used to 'traditional' marketing adapt to and learn the online world. Episode Links Michigan Tech - Marketing ProgramGoldman Sachs 10K Small Business ProgramGuest LinksMarketing Refresh LinkedIn - Terri Hoffman Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

Cory Henke’s path to his current stop, leading his media buying and analytics agency, is anything but a straight line. From convincing his college basketball coach to let him walk on as a novice to being taken into investor meetings by his last boss and CEO, Cory’s learned a lot of things by being unafraid to ask questions, take risks, and be the best at whatever role is needed, especially if that role is ‘Dad.’ Episode Highlights[1:27] Cory shares how being an unlikely member of the basketball team at California Lutheran University taught him how to mold yourself to the a role and the importance of experience.[6:38] A mentor is someone willing to tell you the truth. They don't need anything from you, and are willing to spend the time to help mold you.[7:28] Cory's first mentor and boss, Cat, was ruthless, but helped instill a sense of urgency and the importance of being a team member. [13:19] Cory shares how he found himself loving the combination of disruption and innovation that digital marketing brings when working with a particular client - Mormon.org.[18:05] A position at Molio brought Cory to Utah and spurred the launch of his own agency.[23:55] Now, Cory is the mentor, and focuses on doing it all with transparency and love, allowing his employees the space and freedom to grow.[29:00] Cory shares his keys to mentoring success[30:00] Learn why Cory lists the role of 'Dad' first in his LinkedIn bio.[32:29] Cory's favorite element of digital marketing is data - he believes it's the gold to success in this field, and wants to be the best at mining it.[34:40] Why does YouTube hold such a place of focus for Cory?[38:32] Beginning in 2020 and into 2021, scaling a business required a talented media buyer. In the last year, successful scaling has come from those focusing on product innovation.[44:54] Cory shares is top 3 tips for getting into media buying[47:31] Cory shares why Variable Media's website uses Notion Episode Links California Lutheran UniversityYouTube ChannelsPaid Media ProsLex FridmanAndrew HubermanCory HenkeVariable MediaTwitterLinkedIn Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

We discuss the purpose, benefits, and process of a solid SEO content writing strategy with Mandy Politi, a  Senior SEO Strategist at Optidge. Her career journey began as a child in the Greek education system with a strong focus on written content, continued with a degree in linguistics, and has led to a passionate approach to creating ever-evolving content briefs for writers and valuable content for consumers. Get ready for SEO Content Writing 101 in this episode of the Digital Marketing Mentor. An Optidge "Office Hours" EpisodeOur Office Hours episodes are your go-to for details, how-to’s, and advice on specific marketing topics. Join our fellow Optidge team members, and sometimes even 1:1 teachings from Danny himself, in these shorter, marketing-focused episodes every few weeks. Get ready to get marketing!Episode Highlights[1:28] Mandy is Optidge’s Senior SEO Strategist. She grew up in Greece, moved to Scotland to get her Master's degree in Applied Linguistics, and now lives in Mexico City. Her primary education in Greece certainly influenced her decision to go into the field of Search Engine Optimization with a focus on written content. [6:52] What does it mean to “write for SEO?”[8:00] Why is SEO content important and what's the goal of optimizing content?[11:50] Consider a hypothetical scenario. An orthodontist only supplies Invisalign and does not offer traditional braces. Is it okay for them to write content to try and rank for “braces?” [14:40] Mandy shares her process for writing for SEO[23:45] For true optimization, you must go back and review the content you’ve published after a month or two. Has the content been indexed? Does it rank for what was originally intended? [26:18] Mandy isn’t always writing the content herself. She shares how she works with other writers by providing them with content briefs.[34:36] The Greek education system was probably Mandy’s biggest mentor for SEO content. In Greece, every single year of formal education teaches you how to write, why you’ll write a certain way, different structures, what makes content good, and the skill of summarizing content and ideas.  Guest + Episode Links The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert IgerAtomic Habits by James ClearDon’t Shoot the Dog by Karen PryorMandy Politi | LinkedIn Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

Having immigrated to Toronto from Lithuania as a young child and moved multiple times, Akvile is no stranger to adjusting to new situations. She’s taken those life experiences and the skills she learned from her many mentors over her career and turned them into numerous awards and a thriving social media advertising agency. Learn about the path that got her there and how she was gifted a client list to start her agency journey. Episode Highlights[1:45] Akvile shares how her upbringing and educational background taught her how to communicate, demonstrate empathy, and help others overcome challenges.[8:23] What is a mentor to Akvile and where did she find her mentors?[11:34] A key mentor in Akvile's career took her under her wing and gave her a head start in focusing on her marketing career which culminated in founding AKvertise.[17:20] Akvile shares her insights on how she learned she was underpricing herself, and how a major mentor helped her restructure.[21:35] Why does Akvile think it’s important and fulfilling to mentor college students? How is this key to the continued success of the digital marketing world? [25:58] Akvile shares the beauty and challenges of social media advertising: Finding ways to reach an audience that will most likely be interested in the products and services you’re trying to sell and getting that audience into your funnel. She defines this as targeting people instead of keywords.[29:54] Attribution and targeting options within the Meta advertising space have changed significantly over the years., and although the attribution in Meta is more model-based than true data, Akvile still confidently recommends it to her clients. [33:30] If you’re a service provider and/or running your own agency, Akvile would recommend that you take part in both running and implementing campaigns as well as consulting.[39:18] Akvile shares that overcoming stage fright with Toastmaster led to the award she's most proud of and keeps within reaching distance on her desk - Toastmaster of the Year in 2017. Episode Links AKvertiseAkvile DeFazio’s LinkedInPamela Lund | That Pam ChickJohn DohertyToastmastersPodcastsCriminalSold a StoryThe Daily by The New York Times Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

Martha Van Berkel has never backed down from a challenge and wouldn’t know how to hit the brakes on a hairpin turn on a go-kart track. She is always wanting to move faster, solve clients’ problems better, add more value, and think bigger. This is why she created Schema App. Learn more about structured data and how her mentors helped guide her onto the path of success as we dive deep into being open to feedback and opportunities with Martha. Episode Highlights[1:37] Martha discusses growing up in Canada and her educational background at Queen's University and MIT.[12:20] After attending a “CEO Camp” weekend, Martha left wondering if she had a current mentor in her life and, if so, what did that look like? [10:55] Mentoring - getting/giving feedback.[17:05] Martha’s mentors at Cisco each played important roles at key decision points, and her time at Cisco lit the entrepreneurial spirit in her.[28:52] Martha shares how she makes a very concerted effort to mentor her team at Schema App, and what that looks like. [33:25] Martha shares that she is writing a chapter in the book: SEO in 2023, sponsored by Majestic.[35:50] What is schema markup, and how does Schema App provide solutions to businesses?[42:05] Does Google really need schema? Martha gets asked this a lot and shares her insight. Episode Links 2022 Schema App Blog Post RetrospectiveSchema App | Create an AccountMartha on LinkedIn Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

Welcome to Optidge’s Office Hours!  Our Office Hours episodes are your go-to for details, how-to’s, and advice on specific marketing topics. Join our fellow Optidge team members, and sometimes even 1:1 teachings from Danny himself, in these shorter, marketing-focused episodes every few weeks. Get ready to get marketing!Summary Learn the differences between paid search campaigns with a manual bidding strategy vs an automated (or smart) bidding strategy as we discuss the best methods you can use to optimize your ad spend. Rachael Howle is the Head of Paid Search at Optidge and shares her knowledge and experience utilizing manual bidding strategies and how and when to switch campaigns to automated bidding in Google Ads. Episode Highlights [6:52] Rachael and Danny chat about the differences between manual and automated bidding, including how automated bidding utilizes Google's platform.[8:55] Rachael discusses different automated bidding strategies and goals.[9:52] The successes we've seen moving to Maximize Conversions campaigns, and steps to take to evaluate manual bidding campaigns. [17:28] Why the big push from Google to shift to automated bid strategies?[20:44] Rachael provides insight into the continued need for the human touch with campaigns. Automation is only part of it; it’s only a tool. You still need to have the master craftsman. [22:55] Danny and Rachael dive into the significant benefits of utilizing an agency to manage your paid search campaigns[24:24] Rachael shares her parting thoughts: manual bidding is certainly still worthwhile.  Episode Links University of TexasUniversity of Houston, Bauer College of BusinessGoogle Ads Automated BiddingAutomated Bidding StrategiesWe Had a Little Real Estate ProblemProject Hail MaryThe Humanized LeaderRachael on LinkedIn Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

Kirk Williams, Founder and CEO of ZATO Marketing, a PPC micro agency, discusses the benefits of dedicating yourself to learning, sharing your knowledge and wisdom, and more of his background. We talk about how seminary school helped him become the marketer he is today, along with his Father-In-Law, and how he defines a mentor. He mentions the processes he’s implementing to mentor his team today, and we discuss Performance Max and the future of Google Shopping.  Episode Highlights[4:00] Kirk discusses his educational background in seminary school (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) and learning to take in a multitude of different interpretations and backgrounds of ideas.[10:19] When it came to finding and building his team at ZATO, Kirk highlighted the importance of finding people who have curiosity and passion, and doing a cost-benefit analysis of how they commit to projects and learning. [14:25] What is a mentor? At a real, base level, Kirk defines a mentor as someone who has the willingness and knowledge to offer help to someone in an ongoing manner. He also stressed the importance of consent from your mentor, as well as respect for the knowledge and guidance shared. [31:15] Kirk discussed how he is still trying to figure out the details of how he is mentoring and fostering an environment of mentorship within the ZATO world now. [34:30] Performance Max is Google Ads' new goal-based campaign type that uses Google’s automation to target more converting customers and focuses on sales conversions. Kirk highlights how little is known across the digital marketing and PPC communities about how PMax truly works and the specifics of how it targets customers. He also dives into how PMax should be viewed and used within the marketing funnel. Episode Links State of Search - Dallas ConferenceMinnesota SearchUtah DMC Who? By Geoff Smart and Randy StreetKirk’s New YouTube Channel: Merchant Center MasteryPPC Pondering PodcastZATO Marketing Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

After more than 30 years in career services and recruiting, Jamie Belinne finds herself with a wealth of knowledge on how the different generations work, a book helping managers navigate those differences, and many awards and accolades acknowledging her expertise. We discuss how to mentor students and young professionals, why Gen Z is not a generation of narcissists, and why diversity isn’t the norm but will be someday, thanks to the younger generations. Episode Highlights: According to Jamie, a student's experiences outside of the classroom are hugely important. Her time spent as a student worker and intern and her first few jobs were incredible learning opportunities for her. She encourages the students she mentors to strive to leave university with more than just a piece of paper asserting they’ve met the academic requirements of their degree. According to Jamie, a mentor is someone who has understanding and background knowledge beyond your own (in some area) to help provide insight and perspective on your goals and questions. She shares three keys to successful mentorship.In 2017, Jamie published "The Care and Feeding of Your Younger Employee: A Manager's Guide to Millennials and Gen Z." Her research revealed that perceived generational differences often stem from youthful mentality. She also discovered that young professionals anticipate diversity and an ideal work environment, but are often let down. Despite being labeled as narcissistic, younger generations raised in an online world exhibit high awareness of others and their influence. Episode Links:JamieWebsiteBookBooksCrucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson, Stephen R. Covey, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al SwitzlerDifficult Conversations by Douglas Stone,  Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen, and Roger FisherUniversitiesThe University of HoustonLouisiana State UniversityLoyola UniversityTexas TechBird Watching LocationsQuintana BeachHigh Island South Padre Island Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

If you’ve ever wanted to know what it takes to be a brilliant account manager, this is the episode for you. Taylor McMaster owns and runs DOT & Company, a digital marketing agency turned client account management agency. With her, we discuss the power of experiential learning, mentorship from many individuals, and how to truly delight your clients. Episode Highlights: Taylor McMaster owns and runs DOT & Company, a client account management agency. Originally, DOT & Company was a digital marketing agency themselves, but while on a Mastermind trip in Fiji, Taylor realized what she most enjoyed was client communication, management, and organization. So, she transitioned her business to one that managed other agencies’ clients. For Taylor, being a mentor is more of a vibe than a title or rigid definition. However, in her experience with many mentors from different walks of life over the years, she found they share one thing in common. A mentor is someone you can confidently ask for help, and they can provide a new perspective for you. She’s also learned that it is key for her to find mentors who share common values with her. She doesn’t want to be someone working 80-hour work weeks and living in a hustle culture. Obviously, Taylor is very passionate about what makes a good account manager. She knows that proactive communication is paramount to a long-lasting client relationship. Also, having good processes, documentation, and systems are key to efficiency and help soften the edges of the “human element” of agency work. Finally, continuous optimization is imperative to long and profitable client relationships. DOT & Company’s account managers are constantly working with the agency strategists and experts to provide a better service to their clients, whether that’s upselling them on a new service or shutting down one that doesn’t seem to be bringing in the return they need. If you do all these things, you’re sure to delight your clients.  Episode Links: Dot & CompanyThe Happy Clients PodcastSocialsFacebookInstagramCompany - LinkedInTaylor McMaster - LinkedIn Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

From playing games and performing commercials about items in the pantry, to his family, to being Senior Marketing Director at Ostendio, Yehuda has always loved advertising and marketing. Learn how he’s learned to always look for the light, find the lighthouse brand offering, and listen to customers' genuine concerns in this episode of The Digital Marketing Mentor. Episode Highlights: Yehuda Cagen has always had an interest in advertising. Even as a kid, his family would play a game that entailed picking a random item out of the pantry and doing a commercial on the chosen thing. He began his career at an advertising agency after getting his Master’s in Communication. He knows his degree helped open doors for him, but he knows he had to prove himself once he got to work. A mentor is anyone you can learn from, according to Yehuda. He says that our entire journey on this earth is to keep learning. There are formal and informal mentors and intentional and passive mentors. Brian Grodner, Larry Sachnowitz, Peter Edlund, and Grant Elliot have taught him much over the years, much of it focused on being open and inviting to others and having a positive focus in life.  When it comes to advertising complex and niche products, like many of the businesses Yehuda has worked for in his career, he says you must find your beacon. This is the one thing that truly differentiates you from your competitors. You discover this by talking with the customer service and sales teams and listening to honest conversations with current and prospective customers.  Episode Links: Ostendio.comLinkedIn - Yehuda Cagen Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

Starting her career as an SEO copywriter in the wild west days of internet marketing, Fay Friedman has worked diligently and now finds herself as the CMO at a commercial real estate firm bringing the rental world into the modern marketing era. In this episode, you’ll learn how a university degree isn’t the only path into marketing, how self-motivation, learning, and teamwork are keys to success, and how SEO in e-commerce influences the world of apartment rentals.Episode Highlights: Fay Friedman began her career as an SEO copywriter. Through this work, she learned much about the good, the bad, and the ugly of digital marketing and what does and doesn’t help a client’s website. After many years in traditional SEO, she made the transition to commercial real estate, where she is now the CMO of AJH Co. While she may have been thrown into the deep end of real estate marketing, she’s mastered the art of it now, slowly but surely bringing real estate in the modern marketing era (with modern tracking and reporting).Fay believes a mentor is someone you can look up to and that will provide you with clear-headed guidance. They don’t need to be someone you’re close to that you see daily. She references Barry Schwartz of SEO Round Table as one of her early SEO mentors, as she learned so much from reading his blog. Her current COO has also mentored her, teaching her the different ways to be an effective leader. When it comes to real estate marketing, it’s all regional. Fay knows the key to standing out and bringing in high-quality leads is in-depth property and target market research. She then uses that research to craft a unique message highlighting how a given property will help overcome any pain points of that customer group. She’s working to shift the marketing focus from being simply ILS management with basic reporting to a wide breadth of marketing platforms and advertising styles, all with the most reporting and targeting available.   Episode Links:  AJHCo.comFay EmailLinkedInResourcesSEO Round TableSearch Engine LandKristina Azarenko Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

Ever wondered what it takes to excel as a client account manager in the fast-paced world of digital marketing? Join me for an engaging conversation with Nayeli Cano, a seasoned marketing expert and client account manager at Optidge. In this podcast, Nayeli shares her inspiring journey from starting as a content manager, to volunteering with a non-profit, and eventually diving headfirst into the digital marketing industry.An Optidge "Office Hours" EpisodeOur Office Hours episodes are your go-to for details, how-to’s, and advice on specific marketing topics. Join our fellow Optidge team members, and sometimes even 1:1 teachings from Danny himself, in these shorter, marketing-focused episodes every few weeks. Get ready to get marketing!Episode Highlights:Nayeli Cano is a client account manager at Optidge. Her foray into the digital marketing industry began thru a volunteer position at a nonprofit organization. She then went on to work in sales at a marketing agency. This is where she discovered account management - in her effort to truly understand the offerings and services she was selling. She was hooked and eventually moved from sales at that agency to account management at a different company.Organization, time management, and communication are all key skills for account managers. Nayeli is a natural “control freak,” so she takes to organization like a duck to water. Time management for her all comes down to the good ol’ To Do List and setting priorities. Finally, communication and being able to read people, both your client and your team members, is key for setting expectations and protecting your team. Managing expectations can be very challenging, and sometimes last-minute, urgent requests are unavailable. But Nayeli’s team knows she’s there to negotiate for them and protect their time and effort. It can be very easy to keep your account management “hat” on 24/7. She avoids this by having a specific “closing” routine to wrap up her work day, where she notes all remaining priorities and plans her tasks for the next day. Then, she turns off all notifications and takes her dog on a walk outside. Sometimes, when walking, she’ll get inspired and find insight or a solution to a work problem. When this happens, she writes it down on her phone and then gets back to being in the moment with her dog.  Guest + Episode Links OptidgeLinkedIn Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

It all started with a box for a Houston Rockets sweepstakes for kids at an Olive Garden. Be sure to listen to this episode to hear about Adam Clanton’s love for all things Houston Sports and how he got into sports talk radio. You’ll also learn plenty about how the internet and social media have changed sports media in big ways over the years.  Episode Highlights:After first getting his start in the world of sports at a young age, winning the chance to be a ball boy for the Houston Rockets, Adam Clanton persevered through his challenging college education at Sam Houston State University and has been working in sports talk radio since 2004. His father is a very influential mentor to him and also works in (not-sports) talk radio. He’s encouraged him many times over the years and has encouraged some encounters that became long-lasting business relationships and friendships. To Adam, a mentor is not someone necessarily working the job you want in the industry in which you’re working. A mentor is someone who makes sure you’re going down the right path based on your skills and strengths. They help minimize or overcome your weaknesses in the most selfless way imaginable. Mark Vandemeer is one of those mentors for Adam. He met Mark after Mark had met his father and worked at the same radio station. Mark eventually developed a friendship with Adam and helped coach him on many things in business and life. Early in his career, Mark offered Adam a co-host spot on his radio show. And the rest, as they say, is history. The internet has been increasingly present in sports media the whole time Adam has worked in the industry. His favorite platform of choice is Twitter, though he notes it can be a perilous place. His love for the “Mute” button cannot be overstated, and it has helped him focus on listening to the people whose opinions truly matter, his family and friends. Social media has also given him a platform to partake in one of his favorite parts of his job - giving away free tickets. He loves giving away free Rockets tickets to people on social media who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to see and enjoy a game.  Episode Links:Adam ClantonTwitterInstagramFacebookLinkedInSam Houston State University - Broadcast JournalismSportsHouston Rockets BasketballHouston Texans FootballHouston Astros Baseball Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

Amalia learned through her education that there is no one path to success. For her, it started with a degree in psychology. It went on to include managing Google Ads, being a marketing director, and now, being a professor at her alma mater and running her own consulting agency. In this episode, we talk about public speaking, management strategies, professorship, AI, and Taylor Swift.  Episode Highlights:Amalia learned through her education that there is no one path to success. For her, it started with a degree in psychology and went on to include managing Google Ads, being a director of marketing, and now, being a professor at her alma mater and running her own consulting agency. She knows age doesn’t always mean more life experience and formal education isn’t the absolute best or worst route for people interested in digital marketing. It depends. Defining a mentor is a challenge, but to Amalia, the definition should be broad and open to different paths. A mentor is someone who has had a positive impact on your life that you’ll recall for many years. Her three keys to mentoring success are:Self Awareness. It’s incredibly important in general, but especially in mentoring. If you don’t know what you don’t know, you’re incapable of providing advice. Approach with curiosity. She’s learned always to ask questions. She never approaches with anger and tries not to be upset. Everyone has backgrounds and core beliefs we were taught as we grew up. Now we must ask ourselves if we still believe or want to subscribe to those life rules.Follow your sparkle. If you don’t like the word ‘sparkle,’ you can use ‘joy,’ but why would you when ‘sparkle’ is right there? At the end of each semester, Amalia always tells her students, “If you HAVE to disappoint someone, don’t let it be you.” When it comes to updating her course curriculum to keep up with the ever-evolving world of digital marketing, Amalia has a fairly straightforward approach. If her students can Google a tool or program once they’re out of her classroom and in the workforce, then she has a responsibility to teach them how to smartly and safely use that tool. Regarding ChatGPT and AI, she makes sure they understand the inherent biases, challenges, and flaws in the foundation of those tools. An essential question you must always ask when using AI is, “What’s WRONG with it?” Episode Links: LinkedInTwitter her dad is on Twitter and he always responds to every one of her tweetsDove Self-Esteem ProjectCost of Beauty: A Dove Film | Dove Self-Esteem Project Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

Get ready to dive deep into a case study with a real Optidge client. Their website had more than 12,000 pages, but they were getting little organic traffic. That, coupled with a “Couldn’t Fetch” error for the sitemaps in Google Search Console, is what led Optidge down the rabbit hole that is “low-quality content” in SEO. An Optidge "Office Hours" Episode Our Office Hours episodes are your go-to for details, how-to’s, and advice on specific marketing topics. Join our fellow Optidge team members, and sometimes even 1:1 teachings from Danny himself, in these shorter, marketing-focused episodes every few weeks. Get ready to get marketing!Episode Highlights:This case study concerns a client that came to Optidge with a 12,000 page website that was underperforming in organic search. They also received a “couldn’t fetch” error when submitting their sitemap via Google Search Console. The website's purpose was to serve as a search engine for social media influencers. Our analysis uncovered a low-quality content issue.Because so much of the website is content copied from various social media sites and profiles, it’s fairly low on content, AND Google will view it as low quality because it’s not unique. There are two ways to rectify a low content quality issue. You can remove or block the pages from being indexed by Google. Alternatively, you can increase the value and improve the quality of the content on those pages. The latter should be driven by keyword research. We recommended the client create static pages targeting specific, high-traffic keywords and then link those pages via a categorical structure in the navigation. Finally, if the content quality were not an issue and the likely cause of low organic performance, the search console error would still be annoying. Our research uncovered that a sitemap submission in Google Search Console is mostly a suggestion rather than a command to Google when crawling and indexing your site. If it doesn’t accept the sitemap, your main remedy is waiting. There are certain rules of thumb and alternative file types and submission methods you can try to help increase the likelihood of Google accepting your sitemap.  Episode Links: Mandy’s SEO EpisodeGoogle Search ConsoleHow to Submit SitemapYoast SEO WordPress Plugin Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

William (Bill) Zahn is a clinical professor at the University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business. He started teaching there five years after finishing his Ph.D. at the same institute. His former professors and department heads have mentored him, and he now mentors his students in the ways of storytelling in marketing and how writing will always need the human element. Episode Highlights: BackgroundWilliam (Bill) Zahn started his marketing career with a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Texas at Austin. After a stint in the workforce, he got his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Houston. Five years after completing the graduate program, he returned as a professor, where he remains today. MentoringWhen defining a mentor, Bill knows one thing for certain - he doesn’t like to leave it open-ended. If someone requests Bill to mentor them, he wants expectations set up front. How often will we meet? What do you hope to get out of this? He believes a mentor is someone who has been where you want to go and can offer you advice to help you overcome challenges on your path to success.ProfessorshipA social media marketing class project had a bit of a plot twist when one of Bill’s students managed to convince Gary Vee to call and be a guest speaker for their class. Bill knows that storytelling is a critical element of good teaching and good marketing. He always tries to find ways to relate a topic to his students' lives so they’ll better remember it. He also knows that AI is here to stay, especially in the world of marketing content creation, but it will always need the human touch because it doesn’t have life experiences to draw upon.  Episode Links: LinkedInTwitterBooksThe Go-Giver by Bob Burg The Trusted Advisor by Charles Green  Lost and Founder by Rand Fishkin  Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

Henry Adaso is The Marketing Quarterback. In this episode, we discuss what a mentor is and why Henry didn’t have the broadest access to mentors when he was younger. We also discuss how storytelling and teamwork are the key pillars of marketing success in the digital marketing world. Episode Highlights:Henry Adaso was born and raised in Nigeria, where he founded and led his high school’s press club. This was when he first fell in love with words. He uses those powerful storytelling skills today in his marketing career. A mentor is a guide. They are someone who can help guide you along your career path because they’ve walked a similar path. A successful mentor must listen. They must understand their mentee's goal and not default to their own understanding or personal goals to advise them. Adaso is the epitome of The Marketing Quarterback because he wants to be in the trenches, doing the work with his team. His team he crafted carefully, ensuring he had a collection of unique individuals with skills and superpowers that complemented each other, all working toward a shared vision. Storytelling is a key element of Henry’s life and marketing strategy. This is obvious in the three bestselling books he’s written and published. They all discuss different elements of marketing strategy, including overall content strategy,  internal motivation, and audience definition and focus. Each book begins with a story and goes on to motivate and teach the reader the marketing quarterback’s playbook.  Episode Links: Global Mentoring InitiativeLinkedInWebsite Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

John Doherty is the founder of Credo, an agency broker, and EditorNinja, a subscription-based professional editing services firm. He has traveled extensively and has currently found home in Colorado with his wife and daughter. In today’s episode, he discusses tiered business relationships, mentorship, entrepreneurship, editing, and sales tactics.Episode Highlights: John Doherty got a degree in technical and scientific communications from James Madison University. He originally believed he wanted to diverge from his father’s 30-year employer and older brother’s alma mater and go to university out of state, but James Madison provided a great degree program. After graduating, he traveled, lived in Europe for a bit, and then returned to work his way up the East Coast. Forty-seven states, 20+ countries, three continents. John travels. He knows travel can open one’s worldview and perspective. He and his wife and family now live in Denver, where they seem to have put down fairly deep roots. This doesn’t stop them from going on trips and vacations often. To John, business relationships settle into tiers. Tier 1 is peers, many of whom follow different paths as we move through our careers; some grow with us. Tier 2 is for coaches. A coach is someone you pay for their business advice and guidance. They’re often a couple of steps beyond you in business. Finally, Tier 3 is reserved for mentors. A mentor is someone many steps ahead of you in their career who advises on a more macro, meta-level. This is the type of person who, in a 10-minute conversation, can completely shift your paradigm around a question, challenge, or opportunity. EditorNinja is John’s current business venture focus. They offer professional editing services on a subscription-based model, a strategy inspired by John’s friend, the founder of Design Pickle. Many freelance editors they work with are in their first job out of an editing or master's program. John mentors them on professional career skills. He is not an editor. He’s a writer, marketer, and salesperson who will not try to convince someone they need his services but will instead ask the right questions until the person convinces themselves if they’re the right match for EditorNinja.  Episode Links: LinkedInTwitterEditorNinjaWordPressSlackMoz.comCredo Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

Today’s Office Hours episode focuses on the many ways stereotypes and unconscious biases can make their way into the workplace. Maddie Deane, the SEO Team Lead at Optidge, is a young woman in the digital marketing space, and she discusses her experiences with certain behaviors that seem to question her expertise based on her gender or perceived age. An Optidge "Office Hours" Episode Our Office Hours episodes are your go-to for details, how-to’s, and advice on specific marketing topics. Join our fellow Optidge team members, and sometimes even 1:1 teachings from Danny himself, in these shorter, marketing-focused episodes every few weeks. Get ready to get marketing!Episode Highlights:Maddie, being mostly Gen-Z with some Millennial still there, knows all too well the stereotypes associated with those generations. She has had to fight for respect in the workforce because many have the preconceived notion these generations don’t care about careers or putting in hard work. She views many of the “negatives'' as “positives.” When it comes to countering stereotypes and biases, Maddie’s number one tip - Self Confidence. Avoid using softer language like “I think…” or “it might be…” and use strong, assertive language and posture. She tries to teach this to her mentees and trainees by leading by example. Managers, bosses, and owners can help by setting expectations with new clients of who they will be working with and passing their credibility onto the day-to-day workers by communicating their expertise and confidence in their team to the client.  Episode Links: LinkedIn - Maddie DeaneAleyda SolisAnn HandleyAmy VernonWomen in Tech SEOBooksDaring Greatly by Brene BrownNot Nice by Dr. Aziz GazipureWe Were Liars by E. Lockhart Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

Broadway? More like broadband! Emily Ryan is THE Mailchimp influencer. After moving past the dream of being big on Broadway, she became an executive assistant. When having a baby led to a dread of returning to office work, she struck out on her own and made herself the champion of Mailchimp Email Marketing. Learn more about her journey and how she mentors new mothers wanting to work from home in today’s episode! Episode Highlights:Emily Ryan got her start in theater. She attended a prestigious musical theater school, got her degree, and then moved to New York City to pursue a Broadway career. It was incredibly challenging and turned what was previously a passion into a business. So Emily transitioned to executive assistant work. After doing that work for many years, she had a baby, moved to Utah with her husband, and shuddered at the idea of returning to office work and leaving her new baby (with whom she was obsessed). A friend recommended she look into becoming a virtual assistant (VA), and she did. That VA work very quickly became Mailchimp email marketing work. And it’s just snowballed from there. To Emily, a mentor is someone who you can rely on to be there for you when you need advice and is there to provide guidance and support. She has been mentored by many other agency owners from around the globe through the Mailchimp partners program. She is extremely passionate about helping other mothers learn how to start their own businesses to work from home. She mentors those women and is there for them in so many ways. She shares her contract templates and will sit in on kick-off calls for newcomers to the business. Seeing a new mother crushing it and making a significant income while working from home is the best!Email marketing is not old news, and Emily knows it. Have you been in your inbox today? The likely answer is ‘yes.’ She knows this means email is incredibly powerful. SMS is the next budding tool, and while she’s unsure of its conversion power, she knows it will certainly be powerful for many businesses' marketing strategies. She does love social media, especially Instagram. She knows both email and social media are necessary, and each has its own pros and cons. Go export a copy of your mailing lists right now. Always have a backup copy. Do it! Episode Links: Instagram @emilyryanlikesTwitter @emilyryantweetsWeekly email newsletterWestfield CreativeLinkedIn | Emily Ryan  Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

In this special episode of The Digital Marketing Mentor, we look back at the many conversations we’ve had with our guests around the topic of ChatGPT and AI. We discuss the teaching of it to students (and our own kids). We talk about the ethical and moral uses and limitations of such a tool. We also talk about why many of us believe this will not be taking any of our jobs any time soon. Episode Highlights:The many experts we’ve interviewed about ChatGPT and AI seem to share a few understandings.If you don’t use these tools, everyone else in your industry will, and you will be left behind. ChatGPT and AI are intended to be tools to assist humans, not the other way around. These new tools can help us write content that better (and in fewer words) gets to the crux of a point of communication.Educators believe they are responsible for teaching their students how to use this tool as well as the limitations and implications of its use. There is one major thing ChatGPT and AI are NOT - human. They lack our humanity, creativity, and perspectives, and therefore, humans will always be needed to polish, expand, and supervise their content.  Episode Links: Mosheh PoltrakAurora LosadaDaniel CotlarJohn DohertyFay FriedmanBill ZahnJamie BelinneAmalia Fowler Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

Shaina Keren discovered her path in life, and it has led her to become a career coach. She’s a master at drawing out the best in people and discovering how to shape those skills into their career of choice. Her first decade of working life was spent in education, so she’s experienced changing directions at unexpected times. Listen in to learn more about her tips for personal discovery and resume fixes. Episode Highlights:Shaina Keren is a career coach, but her path to this point was not a straight one. She spent the first decade and then some as a teacher in the education field. After some intense self-reflection and research, she found herself connected with Nicholas Lore, the author of The Pathfinder, and on her way to becoming the brilliant career coach she is today.When it comes to mentors, Shaina has grouped them into three categories. There is the kind you’ll never meet, the kind you pay to meet, and the kind that are “right at the top” of the hills you find yourself wanting to climb. Her two most notable mentors have been Nicholas Lore and Jacob Engle. Each has guided her along her journey as a career coach. Shaina offers many pieces of advice for those looking for the right career for themselves. First, imagine your ideal self outside of the constraints of your current reality, then figure out what you take from that image and make it work in the real world. Next, just take a personality test. There are plenty of free quizzes available, and they can work well as a tool to self-discovery. Finally, your resume should not be your whole life history. Tailor your resume to the positions to which you’re applying.  Episode Links: ShainaKeren.comCareer QuizLinkedInBooksThe Choice by Dr. Edith EgerThe Pathfinder by Nicholas LoreI Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor: Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com Instagram: @thedmmentor Linkedin: @thedmmentor YouTube: @thedmmentor Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family: Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations. ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.