A Recap from Founder’s Friday with Kellie Clark

A Recap from Founder’s Friday with Kellie Clark

Lunch & Learn | 1 comment

On St. Patrick’s Day (March 17), we hit a pot of gold at our March Founder’s Friday Lunch with Kellie Clark, CEO of AppThink. Founder’s Friday is held on the third Friday of every month at Forge where local founders and organization leaders share their founder’s story and lessons learned along the way.  This past week, Kellie openly shared the humanity behind her journey to CEO of AppThink. CEO was never a title she chased, but one that found her.

Driven by economic development and equality her role at AppThink gives Kellie the platform to support early stage start-ups and aspiring founders in breaking down barriers through the adopted principle of Super Specific How’s. Along with her work in championing others in the community and start-ups, Clark balances her roles as a wife of 10-years and mother of two. Kellie left the crowd with nuggets that certainly did nothing less than inspire.

Below are a few of my key takeaways from the conversation with Kellie…

1. People are inherently GOOD.

Kellie shared her work with founders and start-ups and her realization that they are a group of people who are looking to help and impact the world by providing a solution to a problem.

2.  Build a business around an opportunity, not a passion.

Your passion may not always end up as the most profitable business.  Finding the right opportunity to meet with a need may change your trajectory.

3.  Doing a lot of things, but not doing them well is an integrity problem.

When Kellie realized this, she had to clear herself of some duties and roles in order to reach ultimate productivity and serve her current role well, with full integrity.

Kellie Reads:
Hangry by Mike Evans, Founder of GrubHub

Essentialism: The Discipline Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown

Napkin Math Blog

A very special thank you to our sponsor Gatehouse Law for providing the delicious Unos Tacos for lunch!!   And yes, Gatehouse provides lunch for every Founder’s Friday!

We appreciate each of you who came and connected with us! We hope to see you on the 3rd Friday of April at our next #ForgeFoundersFriday where Brooke Gillis, CEO of Innovation Depot, will be our featured speaker!  Sign up here.

If you or your company are interested in sponsoring a Forge event, please contact Valyncia Johnson (valyncia@workatforge.com).

How To Grow Your Business Through Networking

How To Grow Your Business Through Networking

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Do you dread networking? Even though we know that networking may not be at the top of your priority list, everyone knowns networking ultimately helps you grow your business. Jenna Curry recently taught a Forge webinar about the power of networking! Jenna is the owner of Remedy Digital Agency and we are recapping the highlights from her teaching. You can watch the full recording here.

 

Jenna Curry, Owner of Remedy Digital Agency

 

How can networking get you…

friendships

clients

referral

partners

board members

donors

employees

free advice

free stuff

 

In order to network effectively, you want to bring your best energy to each opportunity. 

 

 

For networking to work, you must connect! Here’s how:

  1. Have a “give first” mindset- see how much of an impact you can make on others
  2. The only self-serving goal should be to find at least 1 thing you can learn from someone to apply to your business/life
  3. Know your value and determine what value you bring to each situation
  4. Know the problem your business solves for your customer and your customer’s customer
  5. Care about the people you network with
  6. Exercise that energy/value
  7. Focus on getting to the next step on the ladder instead of sealing the deal

 

 

Networking with Mixtroz at our IWD 2020 event

 

 

Getting Started with Intentional Networking: 

1. Make a list of your next 10 dream clients
2. Write out what time, knowledge, gift or access can you provide to your ‘Future Dream 10’ Clients?
3. Write out who, what, where, and when for each person you want to impact
4. Start making contact and keeping track (using a CRM or Google sheet) of who, what, where, and when for each.
5. Iterate and repeat
6. Grow your contacts and grow your business!

 

 

Jenna told us to ask ourselves, how can you leverage your energy?

  • Emotions: send encouraging messages, pay attention, give feedback
  • Time: volunteer and show up!
  • Knowledge: offer a free training, a guide, “how to”
  • Monetary: gift or offer
  • Access: to a connection, space, to information, to a following, a community, an event

Connect- Virtual Networking Meeting

 

What time, knowledge, gift or access can you provide to your ‘Future Dream 10’ Clients?

Who can you thank today? Take time to send a text or write a personalized thank you card!

 

Here are some things that Jenna has personally done to grow her own network:

  • start a networking group
  • share wins for myself and others on social media
  • host a ladies night
  • host a training
  • volunteer for events (show up early, stay late)
  • join a business book club
  • treat friends to golf
  • write an article
  • host/attend a fundraising table lunch
  • write a review
  • send a thoughtful gift
  • invite someone to a Zoom lunch where she had lunch delivered
  • refer business
  • and much more!

 

Don’t forget to thank people profusely!

 

 

Forge recently launched Connect– a weekly virtual networking meeting. We wanted to create a way that you can conveniently make new connections to ultimately grow your business! Connect is open to the public and meetings are Tuesdays from 12:00-1:00pm. You can still sign up as a Founding Member (at a discounted rate of $15/month) through March 31. April 1 price will go up to $25/month.

 

 

Thank you Jenna for sharing your wisdom and experience with networking! Be sure to check out Remedy Digital Agency– look at their blog for lots of helpful resources!

 

 

 

Priceless SEO Strategy on a Local Business Budget

Priceless SEO Strategy on a Local Business Budget

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Are you looking for higher rankings and traffic through SEO (Search Engine Optimization)? Matt Spivak, Marketing Consultant with Uptick Marketing, recently taught a Forge webinar about SEO strategy for local businesses. You can view the recording here. Let’s hit the highlights for you!

 

 

 

Did you know Google receives approximately 63k searches every second?

 

And 3 out of 4 people searching don’t bother going past the first page.

 

Did you know that 3 out of 4 people who conduct a local search (“near me”) will visit a store within 5 miles of their current location?

 

Evaluating Your SEO

 

Step 1: Understand Your Current Situation

  • Ask yourself some questions:
    • What marketing efforts are we currently doing? Is it generating much search volume? How do we know?
    • Is our marketing actually making us money? How do we measure this?
    • What is the lifetime value of a new customer?
    • Where can we earn some easy wins?

 

 

Step 2: Is your site mobile friendly?

  • Is your mobile experience formatted in a way that generates user activity?
    • Phone calls
    • Chat conversations
    • Contact requests
  • Are you tracking events in Google Analytics?

 

Step 3: Building a Strong SEO Foundation

  • How is your website’s load time?
  • Did you know that half of your website visitors will abandon their session if your website takes longer than 3 seconds to load?
  • How is your website’s user experience?
  • Is your website content engaging?
  • Is your website converting visitors into customers?

 

 

Step 4: Ensure Your Local SEO is Spotless

  • Reviews are one of the most important things you can do- social proof drives purchases!
  • Most customers don’t trust advertising but 9 out of 10 young consumers (18-34 year olds) trust online reviews
  • More reviews = more revenue

 

 

 

 

Step 5: EAT – Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness

 

  • What is Google’s product? Trust!
  • Google does its best to reward websites with high quality content
  • Provide a quality experience for your visitors and Google will reward you!

 

Your Next Step as a Business Owner: In House vs. Hiring an SEO Expert

At first an SEO expert can seem expensive. But ask yourself, what is it costing you NOT being seeing on the first page of Google while your competitors are?

 

If you are not able to hire someone to do your SEO right now, these are the top 4 things you can do on your own to improve your SEO…

  • Optimize your Google My Business listing- check out one of our webinar recordings on this very topic!
  • Get more Google Reviews, especially if you don’t have any recent reviews
  • Update the backend of your business website (think headlines, titles, descriptions, alt titles for pictures)
  • Increase your website speed

 

 

Thank you Matt for sharing your SEO wisdom with us! And be sure to check out Uptick Marketing. For more helpful marketing resources (and much more) see Forge’s Resource Page filled with webinar recordings, podcast episodes, blog posts and much more! If you’re tired of working from home, come take a tour of Forge and receive a free Day Pass to work from our space.

14 Secrets to Online Marketing for Entrepreneurs

14 Secrets to Online Marketing for Entrepreneurs

Lunch & Learn | 1 comment

Josh Rhodes has led many organizations but currently he is the CEO of Agent Leads. They generate leads for real estate agents and mortgage brokers. Josh is a founding Forge member and we asked him to share his online marketing tips at one of our past Lunch & Learn events. Here’s a recap of what Josh taught us…

 

Josh Rhodes Agent Leads

 

 

  1. Focus on getting the right offer, right medium and right audience.

You have to know your customer! And your audience dictates your offer. Know what channel you can use to interrupt someone’s life so they’ll buy your product or service.

 

2. The anatomy of good marketing starts with the story you tell.

The story doesn’t have to be long! It could simply be two pictures side by side- showing a before and after. You can tell the origin of your company, origin of your product or a customer success story.

 

3. Know that people are always buying for different reasons and you need to sell a bunch before you think you’ve got their motives figured out.

Just understand that people have many reasons for buying something- maybe because someone told them to or they wanted to try something new. Not always because your product looked really cool.

 

4. Get outside of your own assumptions of what the market wants.

You do not represent your customer so don’t assume that your customer wants the same exact things that you do. Josh’s company, Big Lead Gen, has taken over 10,000 phone calls with customers. Now they can understand their customer’s pains and needs…and finish their sentences!

 

 

5. Don’t build baseball fields in corn fields!

You can’t just build something and assume that people will come. You have to work to attract traffic and convert sales.

 

 

6. Understand traffic.

Traffic means the eyeballs and impressions that see your offer. There is cold, warm and hot traffic. Micro commitments from your sales funnel help customers move from cold to warm and warm to hot. Hot means they’ve got their credit card out and they’re ready to buy!

 

7. Think about your business through the lens of a funnel instead of a website.

Every business has a sales funnel- whether or not you realize it. Having a beautiful website is becoming less and less important. It’s much more important to move people through your sales funnel with micro commitments. This will change the way you market your business!

 

8. Automation trumps determination.

 

(Josh said he stole #8 and #9 from Casey Graham- creator of The 7 Figure CEO Podcast) You are only one person. You have to leverage automation. You will run out of time if you try to do it all by yourself.

 

 

9. Nail it, then scale it.

 

Don’t try to automate something you haven’t dominated yet. Get the repeatable unit scalable. Don’t try to cut corners- spend time refining the repeatable unit. Make sure you can sell with your eyes closed.

 

10. Leverage the power of contrast!

 

Before and after pictures are immensely helpful. Use success stories from customers.

 

11. Find the villain in your industry. If there’s not one, create it!

Attack the incumbent! Act like it’s only you two in the boxing ring. Josh gave the example of his own company as they are working in the real estate industry. Zillow is their villain! Customers relate to that.

 

12. Model the masters.

 

In our day and age, why would you ever try to start from scratch? Create your stuff based off what others in your industry are doing. But don’t plagiarize.

 

 

13. One One One Formula

 

This means focusing on one skill, one piece of technology/tool, one funnel/framework. Every business endeavor is energized by this formula! Attract traffic with your skill and convert sales with your funnel or framework.

 

14. Hire a coach….and not a free one.

 

If you want to go to the next level, you should pay for it. If you want fast forwarding for your business, you need to hire someone who has already been there.

 

We hope these marketing secrets have taught you something new or inspired you to try something new with your business! Thanks to Josh Rhodes for sharing his wisdom.

 

Click Here to Download your copy of 14 Secrets of Online Marketing

 

 

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Community Engagement: Jefferson County Memorial Project

Community Engagement: Jefferson County Memorial Project

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Thank you to everyone who joined us last month for our Community Engagement Lunch & Learn with the Jefferson County Memorial Project.

 

We had two very dynamic speakers – Abigail Schneider and Myeisha Hutchinson – visit us to discuss the JCMP and what the organization means not only to the city of Birmingham, but to the whole state of Alabama. We also learned how the JCMP is connected to the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery.

 

photo by Iron City Ink

 

Abigail and Myeisha spoke at Forge on September 11 – just two days after the JCMP dedicated their first historical marker at Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark. The marker honors the lives of Jake McKenzie and Tom Redmond, two black men lynched at mines owned by the Sloss-Sheffield Iron and Steel Company. The event at will reflect on the lives of Mr. Redmond and Mr. McKenzie and the system of convict leasing that continued to abuse and exploit black residents long after the abolition of slavery.

 

 

Historical Marker dedication at Sloss Furnaces- photo by Bham Now

 

The JCMP is a grassroots coalition whose goal is to memorialize the victims of racial terror violence and expand our county’s understanding of past and present issues of racial injustice.

 

The organization is composed of over 40 community partners and a multi-racial, multi-faith, multi-sector, and multi-generational group of committed volunteers. The four goals of JCMP are to:

 

  • Research Jefferson County’s 30 documented victims and their descendants through our JCMP College Fellow Program.

  • Educate the public on the importance of this history through events such as art exhibits, school curriculum, and JCMP trainings.

  • Place historical markers at lynching sites and retrieve our monument from the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.

  • Advocate for reform where racial injustice still exists today.

 

Through these four steps the JCMP will work with Alabamians to confront our history and reconcile for our future.

 

Through the work of JCMP, Birmingham is also re-learning some important moments in our city’s history. For example, down the street from Forge is Linn Park (known as Central Park at the time) – the site where a white mob lynched Lewis Houston on November 24, 1883. Mr. Houston was the first of the 30 documented lynchings in Jefferson County.

 

photo by Birmingham Times

 

Abigail Schneider is the director of the Jefferson County Memorial Project (JCMP). She graduated from Yale University with a double-major in Philosophy and American History. Schneider wrote her thesis on Illinois lynchings to push back on the idea that racial violence is only a “southern issue.” As part of her research, she helped facilitate commemoration ceremonies for these forgotten events. She moved to Birmingham through Venture For America, where she worked on financial literacy tools at the startup Azlo. Through JCMP, she wants to continue her work in lynching memory and reconciliation. Historically Birmingham has been at the forefront of activism around racial injustice. With JCMP, Birmingham can yet again be a national leader in this discussion.

 

Myeisha Hutchinson, Jefferson County Outreach Manager for Congresswoman Terri Sewell, oversees the Office’s intergovernmental and external affairs. A lifelong resident of Woodlawn, her training in community organizing has come from a range of local and national organizations including the Highlander Research and Education Center, Congressional Black Caucus Political Boot Camp, Leadership Birmingham, and Leadership Alabama’s Alabama Leadership Initiative.

 

You can also learn more at JCMP’s recently launched blog, Liberated Voices.

 

The Community Engagement Lunch & Learn series at Forge is sponsored by Red Thread Consulting. Follow Forge on Facebook to see all of future events that are free and open to the public!