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 IslandFollow 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.

Creative Director, SEO lover, photography enthusiast, and creative wanderer, Batli, is here to discuss how her journey through a journalism degree in college and living on both coasts of the United States led her to the technical SEO realm. Through joining university organizations, mentoring younger students, and learning about internet marketing, Batli’s creativity has always been a driving force. Her focus on the leadership traits of her chosen mentors has helped her learn about how she thrives at being a student of life. We promise you’ll learn plenty from her story on The Digital Marketing Mentor.Episode Highlights:Batli’s path to the world of SEO wasn’t a straight and easy one. She got her education in photography and journalism from the University of Texas. She eventually found her way to Optidge where she learned, through trying, that SEO and SEO content were the niche in which she wanted to be. The Google Helpful Content Update was being rolled out at the time of our chat with Batli. Google was trying to direct SEO-ers to focus on making content with a people-first mindset, as opposed to an algorithm-first approach. We don’t yet know what the impact will be, but it will likely be good for users and harder for good marketers to be seen as everyone starts making better content. Mentorship and being mentored, for Batli, are really more about the personality of the mentor, rather than the technical skills within a given industry or platform. A mentor must lead with empathy and for the mentee to feel like they’re heard. Batli has taken these traits and now uses them as she mentors others.Episode Links:University of Texas Journalism DegreeThe Daily TexanUT Fashion GroupGoogle Helpful Content Update: https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/08/helpful-content-update https://searchengineland.com/google-helpful-content-update-is-now-done-rolling-out-387832https://www.searchenginejournal.com/googles-helpful-content-update-rolls-out-7-things-to-know/462610/ 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.

Aurora Losada came to Houston, by way of Columbia University in New York, from Madrid, Spain. She worked many years in journalism and is now Microsoft’s Global Communications Manager for Latin America. With the guidance and support from some fantastic mentors along the way, Aurora has learned much about how to lead and utilize tools like generative AI and ChatGPT. In this episode, you’ll learn so much about how mentorship can drive a brilliant, hard worker like Aurora. Episode Highlights:Aurora Losada was born and raised in Spain. Her father was the CEO of one of the largest publishing companies in Europe and helped instill an amazing work ethic in her. He encouraged her to follow her vision of going into journalism. After attending college in the United States, she loved it so much that she made it permanent and became a US Citizen. Aurora has had many amazing mentors over the years, including our very own Danny Gavin, The Digital Marketing Mentor. All of her mentors have guided, advised, and supported her with no expectation of personal gain. They were always there to answer questions and open doors for her, as a good mentor should. When it comes to AI and content generation, Aurora has many thoughts. She believes generative AI specifically is being created to be an amazing tool that supports humans rather than the inverse. She’s used it herself with help on projects in the past, but it doesn’t do her job for her. It’s an administrative assistant that is useless without human prompts and input. As far as content generation and AI are concerned, Aurora believes it is a very useful tool for summaries, drafts, and brainstorming, but you must always double-check the output and review the sources and add the human mind back into the content. Episode Links:Aurora LosadaLinkedInTwitter Columbia School of JournalismColumbia School of International and Public AffairsNews Literacy Project of HoustonPodcasts The Hard Fork by the New York TimesOn with Kara SwisherAppleSpotifyDare to Lead with Brene BrownFollow 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.

Daniel Cotlar learned early on that he enjoyed the creative, risky, high-energy startup world, and after learning much over his years working at them, now invests and mentors startups. He is passionate about helping others and learning from them. In this episode, he discusses his steps to a successful startup business and mentoring relationships, and some of the stumbling blocks he’s found along the way.Episode Highlights:Daniel Cotlar learned early in his life that he preferred working in smaller, more risk-taking, creative environments. This ultimately led him to work with Jay Steinfeld at Blinds.com. Jay has been a pivotal influence and mentor for Daniel and taught him about his core values, structure, and more. Daniel believes a mentor must want what’s best for their mentee. There should be some flexible structure, and they should focus more on asking questions than simply dumping solutions. Through his work as an investor and board member, Daniel does a lot of mentoring these days. He believes it’s essential for new businesses to just go for it: get the product out of the idea stage and into the customer’s hands as quickly as possible, with as little cost as possible. Then you can observe, learn, and improve. It is also imperative for a new business to have product-market fit. If you can prove this, you will find investors. The experience of attending a yeshiva, a traditional Jewish college, and learning to study the Talmud taught Daniel how to distill complicated logic, find patterns, debate, and reason. These elements have served him very well over his marketing career.Daniel believes Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is a valuable statistic, but it's true power lies not in itself as a solitary number. Instead, it lies in finding trends and differentiating between customer sets, campaigns, and time periods. For new businesses, you will have to start with a gap-filled estimate. But over time, you will fill those gaps and refine that number. Remember, though, that achieving and expanding CLV will get more difficult over the life of a company. Episode Links:Daniel Cotlar - LinkedInTwitterLead from the Core - Jay Steinfeld 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.

Chris Long is the VP of Marketing at Go Fish Digital and has found himself there through a curvy road that began in finance in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. He’s learned a lot about key traits in a mentor, content strategy, and technical SEO along the way. Be sure to listen to this episode to hear how he customizes his strategy in all things mentorship, technical SEO, and more! Episode Highlights:Chris Long came from a background in finance and discovered the world of digital marketing. He’s learned it welcomes people from all backgrounds and experiences. At his first job, he worked closely with the small business owner and got an inside look at how a business operated and how marketing folded into the larger landscape.A mentor should be different things for different people; there is no one-size-fits-all approach. A mentor should guide you and help you perform at peak capacity. Chris has drawn certain traits from past mentors and uses those in his life now and tries to pass them on to his mentees. An innate curiosity for problem-solving, self-sufficiency, and empathy are key to a good mentor relationship. Chris is a frequent content creator, whether that is written content shared on various publications and LinkedIn, or through his talks at many conferences on digital marketing. He is influenced by those topics both from external inspiration, seeing someone else discussing a topic, and internal curiosity. The stories he is most drawn to tend to be experimental, where someone has a hypothesis and tries it to see how it would play out. Episode Links:State of Search ConferenceChris's Social Media LinkedInTwitterThe Splash Newsletter by Go Fish DigitalBooksHigh Output Management by Andrew S. GroveHow to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale CarnegieOutliers by Malcolm GladwellHow to Talk to Anyone by Leil LowndesFollow 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.

Mosheh has done marketing for many startup businesses over the years and has learned a lot from those experiences. He now runs a fractional CMO firm (don’t worry, we define what that means) and is pushing the use of ChatGPT and AI as powerful tools in the marketing world. In this episode, he also tells us his key tactic for a successful mentor relationship. Episode Highlights:Mosheh has worked for many startup companies over the years, from a virtual currency startup to a software and medical device company. He always envisioned himself in that working environment, the entrepreneurial one. After passing on neuropsychology and legal as potential career paths, he landed on marketing. He appreciates how it blends together left and right-brained thought work. For him, a mentor is someone who has experience in the career you are in and can help guide you in your path. Scheduling, planning, and adhering to a one-on-one meeting with your mentee is imperative to a successful relationship. A mentor should also diplomatically give honest feedback in a way that is direct and truly helpful. Finally, mentors should be open to feedback from their mentees and truly implement change based on that information. Mosheh believes ChatGPT and AI are powerful tools at our disposal. They will be abused like all tools before them, but they can be used responsibly to improve efficiency and performance for almost every business. We need to focus on being human and learning to work with AI because we are humans, and it never will be. Episode LinksMosheh - LinkedInMosheh - TwitterGrwth.coProduct Market Fit PodcastAppleSpotifyFollow 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.

Brianna Deboever discusses how marketing can be a great blending of worlds when it comes to being creatively and analytically minded. She and Danny chat about how important it is to track, understand, organize, and share lead quality rather than just quantity when optimizing paid campaigns. Finally, they review how CRMs and UTMs come in very handy to do just those things to bring about a successful, high-quality lead-generating campaign. 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 HighlightsLead quality is a key element often overlooked by agencies. Customer Relationship Management is a platform or program that stores and organizes data relating to leads to better inform the marketing team to optimize the campaigns and conversion process. UTMs are specific parameters appended to a URL when a user visits your website that denotes the source, medium, campaigns, and more that brought them to your website. It’s essential to track the quality of a lead to ensure you’re not optimizing on flawed data. This means connecting UTMs to one’s CRM so you can track the sources and more, bringing in truly viable and high-quality leads. One must also ensure they track all types of conversions, including phone calls. CRMs can be incredibly helpful for marketing a business, but utilizing them must be a priority. Optidge recommends assigning one or two team members the goal and focus of updating, grading, and disseminating the information in the CRM. This is imperative to ensure up-to-date, useful data is used to optimize PPC campaigns and marketing efforts.Guest + Episode LinksBrianna DeboeverLinkedInInstagramFollow 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.

Brian Gavin is a mentor, renowned jeweler, innovative businessman, and father to The Digital Marketing Mentor. In this episode, you’ll hear about how he grew up in South Africa, took the leap to America with his family and started selling diamonds online, in a time when that was practically unheard of. Be sure to listen in to learn his tips for mentorship and marketing for truly drawing out the sparkle within.Episode HighlightsBrian grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa. His father and grandfather were both key mentors to him growing up. They instilled an unwavering dedication to perfection and presentation. They also taught him that if he had to the drive to do something, he could do it. This helped give him the courage to move from South Africa to the United States with a wife and young child, where he would launch his own diamond brand and be one of the first to sell diamonds online. He’s long been a mentor figure to many in his orbit. He believes encouragement and the passing of knowledge are key in a mentoring relationship. Additionally, you need to find someone who is open, a good listener, and empathetic. Brian has created numerous new diamond cuts and different brand lines under the Brian Gavin Diamonds umbrella. He was never one to turn away from something originally shunned by society, like blue fluorescence in diamonds. Instead, he found how to highlight the uniqueness and true sparkle of each individual piece. Episode LinksBrianGavinDiamonds.comSocial MediaInstagramTikTokTwitterLinkedInBrian Gavin BlueFollow 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.

Allie Danziger joins Danny on the Digital Marketing Mentor to discuss her many mentors, such as her parents, her first boss, and some of her many employees. She also discusses how she transitioned from running one of Texas' most successful pr and social media agencies to training and teaching young professionals the tricks to being effective in the workplace. Be sure to listen in to hear her fantastic book recommendations as well! Episode Highlights[5:41] To Allie Danziger, a mentor can be anyone higher or lower than you in a company, regardless of experience or age. A mentor is someone who can and will spend time on the relationship and be transparent. They should also know something you don’t know that you would like to know, and they can’t be focused on their own ego. [8:00] Over the years, Allie’s mentors have been her parents, a boss, friends, and employees. She’s learned many different life and career skills from all of them. It is essential to her that you have an open mind and growth mindset so you can take in and learn from those around you. [27:50] After many years running Integrate, a digital marketing and PR agency, Allie now runs Ampersand. Ampersand trains young professionals and those new to the professional landscape with all of the “behind-the-scenes” knowledge about being effective in a workplace. They also help managers better retain their talent by sharing information and data on the interns they hire from her so they can better manage and encourage them. Episode LinksAllie DanzigerLinkedInAmpersandBooksRocket Fuel by Gino Wickman, Mark C. WintersThe Artist’s Way by Julia CameronWorkquake by Steve CadiganThe Happiness Project by Gretchen RubinUniversity of Texas - Public Relations ProgramFollow 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.

Dive into the world of music and professional coaching with Glenn Taylor. Learn how he went from being CMO of the Houston Symphony to coaching individuals and teams on how to be great leaders and foster a culture of feedback. You’ll also hear how impactful and fun organic content creation has been for Glenn and Skybound Coaching, not to mention the many mentors that guided Glenn on his journey. Episode Highlights[1:32] Glenn came to the world of mentorship and marketing via music. He got his degree in music business and then, after some years of work there, became the CMO of the Houston Symphony. He then transitioned to his own coaching business, though the path was not straight and simple and required he take some risks. [12:23] To Glenn, the definitions of coach and mentor are distinct, though the lines will be blurred at times as a mentor needs to don his coaching hat and vice versa. A coach is meant to guide you and, rather than giving you the answers, help draw them out of you. A mentor is more advice-based and shares their experiences and strategies that have worked for them over the years. [15:00] Glenn’s mentors over the years have been many. First was Susan Lieberman, a professor of a leadership course. Then, Matthew VanBesien, the GM, and CEO of the Houston Symphony, taught him a lot about trust and risk. Pat Flynn, whom Glenn has never met, has inspired him as a master content creator. And finally, Chris Kenny, hired initially as a sales coach by Glenn became a mentor and friend. [29:45] Constructive criticism can be difficult for many, and Glenn notes how important it is to develop a mindset of welcoming feedback. He helps to create cultures of feedback with his clients and highlights the terminology of “developmental” or “improvement-based feedback” might be easier to digest. [35:55] Glenn has bought into the strategy of organic content creation since the inception of his business. He began writing and enjoying the creation of all forms of content when he first launched his website. It has resulted in an amazing website with a vast library of content showcasing his knowledge and expertise. Episode LinksGlenn TaylorGoSkybound.com Social MediaInstagramTwitterFacebookSkybound leadership podcastSkybound Coaching on YoutubeLoyola University 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.

Louis Gavin has cultivated a respect for creativity and unique approaches to advertising over his illustrious career. Hear how he was an essential element of Nelson Mandela’s presidential campaign in 1994, worked through the transition to digital advertising in the auto industry, and his thoughts on the best way to be a creative director, leader, and mentor on this episode of The Digital Marketing Mentor. Episode Highlights[13:27] Being a good creative director means being able to overcome your fear of your employees being better than you and being able to shape and influence their approaches, strategies, and styles rather than forcing your own. Creating a culture of learning and mentorship is the best, but it requires a strong, confident leader.[20:05] Louis Gavin was a vital element of the advertising campaign for Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress to be elected to the South African presidency in 1994.  Their campaign focused on educating many of the people of South Africa about the reality lived by many others and garnering sympathy while also building the image that Mandela was the voice of reason, democracy, and human rights. [32:05] Through his work with Wurl, Louis has seen a new approach to advertising, even within the digital age. This new approach can near-immediately aggregate advertising to a given audience who it tracks is watching a streaming program at that moment. This could lead to the lessening importance of creativity, but Louis hopes not because creativity is still where you find the magic in advertising. Episode LinksGuestLinkedInFacebookWits School of ArtTBWA/Chiat/DayAfrican National CongressWurlFollow 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.

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 LinksVistageBlinds.comThe University of Texas, BBA in Accounting ProgramGuest LinksLinkedInWebsiteTwitterPodcastsCafe InsiderAll InFollow 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 LinksMichigan Tech - Marketing ProgramGoldman Sachs 10K Small Business ProgramGuest LinksMarketing Refresh LinkedIn - Terri HoffmanFollow 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 NotionEpisode LinksCalifornia Lutheran UniversityYouTube ChannelsPaid Media ProsLex FridmanAndrew HubermanCory HenkeVariable MediaTwitterLinkedInFollow 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 LinksThe Ride of a Lifetime by Robert IgerAtomic Habits by James ClearDon’t Shoot the Dog by Karen PryorMandy Politi | LinkedInFollow 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 LinksAKvertiseAkvile DeFazio’s LinkedInPamela Lund | That Pam ChickJohn DohertyToastmastersPodcastsCriminalSold a StoryThe Daily by The New York TimesFollow 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 Links2022 Schema App Blog Post RetrospectiveSchema App | Create an AccountMartha on LinkedInFollow 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 LinksUniversity of TexasUniversity of Houston, Bauer College of BusinessGoogle Ads Automated BiddingAutomated Bidding StrategiesWe Had a Little Real Estate ProblemProject Hail MaryThe Humanized LeaderRachael on LinkedInFollow 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 LinksState of Search - Dallas ConferenceMinnesota SearchUtah DMC Who? By Geoff Smart and Randy StreetKirk’s New YouTube Channel: Merchant Center MasteryPPC Pondering PodcastZATO MarketingFollow 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.