In this special episode of the Working Without Pants podcast, Isaac Marsh joins me to discuss our new business venture, CustomData.ai. At a high level, Custom Data scrapes the internet looking for prospects with your specific intent signals to buy. We gather this intent data and deliver you and your sales team hand qualified leads every single week. Not only is this data immediately actionable, but it gives you all the details you need to confidently approach your outbound efforts. We discuss the key things our research team looks for, including companies that are hiring for roles relevant to your business, decision-makers changing positions, funding or expansion news, and RFPs (request for proposals). Furthermore, you receive the exact contact information for the stakeholders you need to talk to in order to gain new business. We also talk about how Custom Data is able to help you build out a custom CRM of prospects that fit your buyer criteria. Instead of wasting time searching through mediocre databases, you’ll have a pipeline of pre-qualified leads your sales team can contact right away. If you’re interested in learning more about how Custom Data can help you get more deals, feel free to reach out to us at https://www.customdata.ai/.   Want to work with me as an advisor? Visit jake-jorgovan.com/coaching Resources: https://www.vidyard.com/podcast/nopants/ https://www.customdata.ai/ isaac@customdata.ai 

Working Without Pants - For Agency Owners & Consultants

205: Introducing my New Company, CustomData.ai

Many outbound agencies focus on delivering high quantities of leads but leave much to be desired in regards to the quality of those leads.  Though playing the numbers game can work to an extent, we believe there are better outbound strategies that reduce the risk of damaging your agency’s reputation and at the same time bring qualified leads to your clients. In the new episode of the Working Without Pants podcast, Isaac Marsh, Partner at Leader Cookie, joins me to explore how we have seen the outbound industry evolve and how agencies should be thinking about outbound. We discuss the issue of misaligned expectations between agencies and their clients regarding the results clients want to achieve. These agencies promise a certain amount of leads, but this number is really just a vanity metric. To serve clients best, you need to understand their true needs and develop a campaign that puts them in front of their ideal clients. We also describe why outbound has more benefits than just closing deals in a short amount of time. These benefits include getting precise on your ideal clients, expanding your network of influence, and creating a long-term pipeline of potential clients.   Want to work with me as an advisor? Visit jake-jorgovan.com/coaching   Resources: https://www.vidyard.com/podcast/nopants/ isaac@leadcookie.com https://contentallies.com/ 

204: How Lead Cookie is Navigating the Evolution of Outbound with Isaac Marsh

If you’ve been a user of LinkedIn over the years, you’ve probably witnessed the shift from it being a very relationship-focused platform, to one where your inbox is filled with spammy messages and connection requests. For these reasons, LinkedIn has reduced the number of connection requests you can send from 2,500 per month to 100 per week. This is bad news for those that spray-and-pray connection requests, but it's extremely beneficial for those that already focus on quality outbound efforts. In this episode of the Working Without Pants podcast, I sit down with Isaac Marsh, Partner at Lead Cookie, to discuss these changes and explore why hand-qualifying leads and boosting the quality of your outbound efforts is necessary for success when prospecting on LinkedIn. We describe why these changes force you to respect your prospects’ time and how the reduction in “noise” is creating better engagement with outreach efforts. We also talk about how focusing on quality with outbound ultimately saves you time, generates leads that you can actually close, and disqualifies bad leads before you waste time hopping on a call with them. For the sustainability of the platform, we think this is the right move for LinkedIn and look forward to the benefits it will bring.   Want to work with me as an advisor? Visit jake-jorgovan.com/coaching   Resources: https://www.vidyard.com/podcast/nopants/ https://www.leadcookie.com/ https://contentallies.com/ 

203: Why We Are Happy about LinkedIn’s Limits with Isaac Marsh

When productizing services, it can be a challenge to figure out how to package and price those services. Additionally, having the discipline to stick to a productized framework is often more difficult than people realize. In this episode of the Working Without Pants podcast, I share a methodology that has helped me productize services successfully, and the benefits it can bring to your business. In essence, I recommend building three core packages to align with different tiers of service, as well as offering à la carte options you can use to customize packages as needed.  This will streamline your sales process, reducing the time spent negotiating with clients. It also helps keep your operations team organized and able to scale more efficiently and quickly. It’s also important to have your packaging and pricing information organized on a simple rate card that you can easily share with clients. There may be cases where you alter pricing for specific clients, but the line items stay the same. If you can be diligent about following a productized framework like the one above, you’ll minimize your team’s workload and have less confusion about your services.   Want to work with me as an advisor? Visit jake-jorgovan.com/coaching   Resources: https://www.vidyard.com/podcast/nopants/ https://contentallies.com/ 

202: Packaging and Pricing for Productized Services

Work-life balance is crucial for the sustainability of any entrepreneur.  Most of us have some method, activity, or way to find this balance, but sometimes this balance can only be found through the prioritization of your tasks at hand. In this episode of the Working Without Pants Podcast, I share an effective framework of prioritization I have been using to find more work-life balance. The framework is quite simple. You start by organizing your work tasks and projects into three categories: 1) needs, 2) shoulds, 3) wants. Needs are those tasks that absolutely need to get done in order for your business to continue functioning without anything negative happening. Shoulds are those tasks that don’t need to get done immediately but should get done in the near future to help grow your business. Finally, wants are those things that could potentially help your business, but there’s really no downside to not doing them. If you’re in need of a recharge, simply focus on your needs for a week and then see where you’re at. You would be surprised how freeing it can be to prioritize your work in this way.  Want to work with me as an advisor? Visit jake-jorgovan.com/coaching. Resources:  https://www.vidyard.com/podcast/nopants/ https://contentallies.com/ 

201: A Framework for Improving Work-Life Balance

Building and implementing robust processes and systems for your business is a must when trying to create more efficiency and scalability within your business. In this episode of the Working Without Pants podcast, I sit down with Corey Northcutt, Founder and CEO at Northcutt, to discuss the processes he has built for his SEO enterprise agency, and why using a credit-based pricing model was the right fit for his business. Corey notes that when offering technical services with many steps such as with SEO auditing, a credit-based pricing model allows you to stay more agile and helps with upfront planning of deliverables. Another benefit of using a credit-based pricing model, according to Corey, is that it eliminates the need for time tracking. When everyone knows what needs to be done and can deliver on schedule, day-to-day tracking isn’t all that important. He says it can initially be a challenge for clients to understand a credit-based system, but as long as you’re delivering high quality work and have your value specs properly documented, it doesn’t cause much fuss. Corey closes the show by sharing his insight around system development lifecycles and some of the tools his team uses to streamline their workflow. Want to work with me as an advisor? Visit jake-jorgovan.com/coaching Resources: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreynorthcutt/ https://northcutt.com/ https://twitter.com/corey_northcutt 

200: Systems Development and Credit-Based Pricing with Corey Northcutt

On this episode of the Working Without Pants podcast, I sit down with Kane Jamison, Founder of Content Harmony, to discuss his journey of transforming his content marketing agency into a SaaS business. Kane shares that though his content marketing agency was successful in many respects, it wasn’t going to reach the level of self-sufficiency that he desired. He wanted to narrow his focus on an offering that could scale better and help content marketers everywhere. Thus, Kane decided to take the comprehensive workflows Content Harmony developed for creating content briefs and turn them into a SaaS offering. According to Kane, this shift to a SaaS model of business was a product of understanding what processes his agency excelled at, working with the right talent to build the software properly, and doing the proper market research to understand the needs of their customers. For agencies considering developing a SaaS product, Kane encourages you to get crystal clear on the objective with the product. He advises doing whatever work you can yourself to reduce costs, and looking for opportunities to launch micro-products while building out the product’s grand vision. Want to work with me as an advisor? Visit jake-jorgovan.com/coaching Resources: https://www.contentharmony.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/kanejamison/ 

199: Converting from an Agency to a SaaS Company with Kane Jamison

On this episode of the Working Without Pants podcast, Dan Morris, Managing Partner at Mindracer Consulting, sits down with me to share his experience of growing, training, and managing world-class sales teams. Dan discusses his journey in sales and why cultivating internal motivation and curiosity are key factors for the success of any salesperson. This curiosity paired with the right training and market research are what bring down the walls for clients and can position you to close more deals. Dan talks about finding the right outbound/inbound sales ratio in order to meet your clients where they’re at. If you’re not gathering data on this ratio, you’re shooting in the dark and won’t know what to expect from increasing outbound or inbound efforts. He also shares the importance of assessing who your best customers are and why they are closing. This allows you to refine who your company wants to work with, how to best serve them, and repeat the process with future clients.  Dan closes the show by describing some of the strategies he uses when coaching sales teams, noting the benefits of talking through deals out-loud to figure out where a deal is stuck. Want to work with me as an advisor? Visit jake-jorgovan.com/coaching Resources: Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions  Mindracerconsulting.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/danmorrisprofile/ 

198: Running a Multi-Million Dollar Sales Team with Dan Morris

To get your podcast out to the world, proper hosting and promotion are a must. In this episode of the Working Without Pants podcast, I’ll cover the essential details you need to consider when hosting, syndicating, and promoting your B2B podcast. I walk through some of the available hosting platforms and recommend using Anchor because it’s easy to use, budget-friendly, and utilizes up-to-date technologies. Anchor also makes syndicating your podcast to iTunes, Spotify, or other channels a breeze. I discuss the different tactics you can use to promote your podcast including:  QUUPromote.com Social Media paid promotion Word of mouth Repurposing podcast content I also outline which materials you need to be sending your guests so that they can easily promote the podcast through their social channels. This will enhance your credibility and reach far more than just promoting your podcast yourself. If you’re ready to get started on your podcasting journey, visit https://contentallies.com/ to learn more about our full-service podcast production services. Resources:  Anchor QUU Promote

Part 6 - How to host, syndicate, and promote your podcast

Though hosting your podcast and interviewing guests may seem a little intimidating when you’re just starting out, it’s much easier than you think. As a host, you’ll actually only be speaking a small portion of the time. It’s your guests and their insight that fills most of the conversation. On this episode of the Working Without Pants podcast, I’ll cover the tips and strategies you can use to conduct engaging interviews with world-class guests. I discuss the importance of researching your guests in advance and taking this information to brainstorm questions about your guest’s background and experience that you want to explore deeper. I highlight why you should let your curiosity drive the flow of your interviews and the crucial role that active listening plays in keeping your conversations engaging.  You’ll also learn why great podcasters always have a set of fallback questions to rely on if their initial questions don’t take up as much time as they thought. With these tips in mind, you’ll be well on your way to conducting great interviews that bring true value to your audience. If you’re ready to get started on your podcasting journey, visit https://contentallies.com/ to learn more about our full-service podcast production services.  

Part 5 - How to Conduct a Great Podcast Interview

In between the ideation phase of your podcast and your first guest interview, there are important details you need to get in order. On this episode of the Working Without Pants podcast, I’ll dive into everything you need to accomplish to be well prepared for your B2B podcast launch. Beginning with podcast artwork, I discuss how to find a graphic designer and what details you need to communicate to them. I provide suggestions for which podcast microphones will suit your purposes and outline how to easily record audio using tools such as Zoom and Zencastr. With the right equipment in hand, you can record your intro podcast episode(s), which play an important role in familiarizing your audience with what they can expect from your show. I also direct you to platforms you can use to find your podcast music and describe the tools we like to use to create your own podcast website.  With these items checked off your to-do list, you’ll be more than prepared to launch your podcast. If you’re ready to get started on your podcasting journey, visit https://contentallies.com/ to learn more about our full-service podcast production services. Resources: Pond5 Envato Elements https://www.upwork.com/ https://www.fiverr.com/ Squarespace PodcastPage. 

Part 4 - Preparing for Your B2B Podcast Launch

All great podcasts start with an idea to share valuable information. But, the idea alone isn’t enough.  You need to refine this idea into a functional strategy for targeting a specific audience with a distinct message. In this episode of the Working Without Pants Podcast, I’ll explore some of the things you need to consider before ever hitting record on your first podcast episode. I discuss why when deciding on your podcast’s subject matter, it’s important to appeal to prospects and partners instead of peers in order to generate new business.  I also dive into the different ways you can go about selecting a name and why there’s no perfect formula you have to follow. It really comes down to what name would attract your ideal prospects and audience, and this differs from industry to industry. I talk about why interview-based podcasts are best for the B2B sector and why the length of your show isn’t as important as being able to deliver value throughout the entirety of your show.  If you’re ready to get started on your podcasting journey, visit https://contentallies.com/ to learn more about our full-service podcast production services.

Part 3 - How to Build Your B2B Podcast Strategy and Plan

Any great podcast is backed by a full podcast production team. From conceptualizing your strategy all the way through publishing and promoting a finished product, there are many moving parts that need to be organized. Typically, you either outsource this work to a full service podcast production agency, or you can choose to hire individuals to build an in-house team. Though it may be more cost effective to try and tackle this in-house, it takes a tremendous amount of time and project management skills. In this episode of the Working Without Pants Podcast, I outline all the moving parts and people you’ll need to successfully launch and maintain a podcast. I walk through the processes, the talent, and time commitments that go into each episode and highlight why in most cases you’ll be better off working with an outsourced team of podcast production experts. As a leader, you only have so much time. And this time is best spent focussing on hosting great interviews instead of worrying about all the details that go into consistently delivering valuable content to your audience. If you missed the first episode in this podcast series, be sure to go check it out and then revisit this episode. If you’re ready to get started on your podcasting journey, visit https://contentallies.com/ to learn more about our full service podcast production services.

Part 2 - How to Build Your B2B Podcast Production Team

The biggest myth around starting a podcast is that you need to build a large following in order to be successful. Building an audience is part of the equation, but it is far from the greatest value driver of starting a podcast. In this episode of the Working Without Pants Podcast, I describe why the number one value driver from podcasting is how it amplifies your ability to network with strategic partners, prospects, and influencers. I discuss why it’s easier than you think to get high level guests on your podcast, and how these engagements lead to lasting relationships built on trust. I also walk through the other reasons why starting a podcast is valuable, including how it positions you as an authority, leads to speaking opportunities, allows you to repurpose your material into other social content, and generates inbound leads. If starting a podcast has ever been on your mind, this episode and the following episodes in this series are for you.   This episode is brought to you by Content Allies Content Allies helps B2B companies launch revenue-generating podcasts. We set you up with weekly interviews with your ideal prospects and strategic partners. You show up and have engaging conversations, we handle EVERYTHING else.  From show strategy and guest outreach, to audio production and podcast syndication. We do it all. With packages starting at $3k per month, we make podcasting an ideal growth channel for you.  Learn more and say hello at ContentAllies.com

192: Why Launch a B2B Podcast

A multitude of startup founders who take the plunge into entrepreneurship do so with the goal of financial freedom and independence. But when faced with the prospect of an investment, an acquisition, or a merger, most entrepreneurs don’t realize what needs to be done. This can lead to a shattered realization of a broken dream as the vision of that financial gain from all your hard work begins to fade into obscurity. Today’s episode of Work Without Pants features Ryan Tansom. Ryan is the Co-Founder of Arkona and is an online educator who aims to impart the ability to plan, grow, and prepare your business for that lucrative exit several years before it happens.  Ryan talks about the 5 Key Principles of Intentional Growth. This guides businesses in establishing their identity as early as their foundation and growth stage. These principles touch cover everything from what you are trying to solve to your financial targets and the value of your business. Watch this episode to gain insight on how to prepare your business properly so you can grow it and gain financial freedom from it in the future.  Gain and learn more essential business knowledge at the following resources to complement this episode: Arkona.io - Gain access to digital courses on Intentional Growth and Mastering Your Cash Flow with Ryan Tamson. ContentAllies.com - In today’s tight world of marketing and brand identity, providing content for people to learn differentiates you from the competition. Content Allies works with you on creating podcasts that result in revenue generation for your business.  Want to work with me as an advisor? Visit jake-jorgovan.com/coaching

191: Building for a Lucrative Exit with Ryan Tansom

Working Without Pants is the podcast for agency owners and consultants who are wanting to win more clients and better clients for their business. Each week, Jake Jorgovan brings you interviews with industry leaders and experts on how to win more clients for your agency or consulting practice. Past guests have included Brennan Dunn, Brent Weaver, Kai Davis, Philip Morgan, Brian Casel, Blair Enns, and many more. Learn more at https://jake-jorgovan.com/podcast

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Working Without Pants - For Agency Owners & Consultants

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