When corporate chains feel more like shackles, how do you break free and craft the life you truly desire? Mike McCormick, the innovative force behind Full Stack Marketing, joins us to recount his remarkable evolution from corporate player to marketing maestro. His candid narrative illuminates the path from servicing industry giants to partnering with spry small businesses, all while navigating the multifaceted world of digital marketing. With an unexpected twist involving photo finished goods in Mexico, Mike's tale is not just about leaving the security of a steady paycheck, but also about sculpting a career that aligns with personal values and the joy of aiding others.
Life, as they say, can change in the blink of an eye, and for Mike, this adage rang true when a severe health scare with COVID-19 reshaped his entire perspective. Our discussion traverses the choppy waters of life's unpredictability, delving into the profound shifts in outlook that arise from such experiences. Mike's journey of recalibration — from an all-consuming work life to treasuring family time and embracing leisurely pursuits like photography and billiards — is nothing short of inspirational. His story serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of resilience, adaptability, and the art of reinventing success, even when life throws you the most unexpected curves.
Full service marketing agency for small to enterprise level organizations. We are experienced in all areas of marketing, both online and offline. The five operating divisions are Full Stack Marketing (large enterprise business), Retail Consultants of Tampa Bay (small business consulting), FSMCQuickbooks (QuickBooks Pro Advisors), FSMCVoIP (business telecom) and FSMCPhoto (photo lab reseller).
https://digitalthatdelivers.com
(813)524-7272
When corporate chains feel more like shackles, how do you break free and craft the life you truly desire? Mike McCormick, the innovative force behind Full Stack Marketing, joins us to recount his remarkable evolution from corporate player to marketing maestro. His candid narrative illuminates the path from servicing industry giants to partnering with spry small businesses, all while navigating the multifaceted world of digital marketing. With an unexpected twist involving photo finished goods in Mexico, Mike's tale is not just about leaving the security of a steady paycheck, but also about sculpting a career that aligns with personal values and the joy of aiding others.
Life, as they say, can change in the blink of an eye, and for Mike, this adage rang true when a severe health scare with COVID-19 reshaped his entire perspective. Our discussion traverses the choppy waters of life's unpredictability, delving into the profound shifts in outlook that arise from such experiences. Mike's journey of recalibration — from an all-consuming work life to treasuring family time and embracing leisurely pursuits like photography and billiards — is nothing short of inspirational. His story serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of resilience, adaptability, and the art of reinventing success, even when life throws you the most unexpected curves.
Full service marketing agency for small to enterprise level organizations. We are experienced in all areas of marketing, both online and offline. The five operating divisions are Full Stack Marketing (large enterprise business), Retail Consultants of Tampa Bay (small business consulting), FSMCQuickbooks (QuickBooks Pro Advisors), FSMCVoIP (business telecom) and FSMCPhoto (photo lab reseller).
https://digitalthatdelivers.com
(813)524-7272
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Mike Sedita.
Speaker 2:Hello out there. Welcome to episode 155 of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm your host, mike Sedita. Today we have the pleasure of being joined by Mike McCormick. He's the president and CEO of Full Stack Marketing. Mike, how are you doing today?
Speaker 3:I'm doing very well.
Speaker 2:Thank you. How are you? I'm doing great. I appreciate you coming on with us to talk a little bit about what you do. Just to give you a little bit of an idea about what we do with the Good Neighbor podcast, we actually started back in 2020 during COVID and when we lived in the world where everybody had to be socially distant. The Good Neighbor podcast was born in an effort to let business owners in the area, entrepreneurs in the area, charitable groups in the area know what they had going on, and in the last four years, we have grown to a national brand. So we have Good Neighbor podcasts everywhere, from Denver to Philadelphia, a whole bunch of cities in between. I'm the guy who gets to talk to business owners and entrepreneurs like you. So, with that said, let's start with telling us a little bit about what full stack marketing is and does.
Speaker 3:So we started about 14 years ago because I walked out of corporate America and I'd had enough. I just didn't want to do that anymore and our real focus is on really split or rung five different areas. Our major company, full Stack Marketing, works with enterprise-level corporate and large business and covers all of their digital marketing. The retail consultants was just a subdivision Does a similar thing, but for the small business, so obviously they don't need the tools and technology that we would use with bigger companies. Then I have a business telecom service. We have a bookkeeping service, which are sort of subsidiaries as well. Then the last one, which is a little bit unique we import photo finished goods into Mexico because there's no real photo labs in that country other than one. So that's a little bit of what we do and we sort of cross a number of segments, but the marketing is our primary area.
Speaker 2:So, with the exception of doing photos in Mexico, a lot of your stuff seems like it's the pain points that businesses have, at least on the small business side, and you guys come up with solutions to mitigate some of those issues that they have, whether it's marketing or a couple of the other verticals that you're working in. Absolutely. So let me ask you a little bit. I mean, you said you've been doing this 14 years, so around 2010,. You got out of corporate America. What's your journey like? How did you get from whatever you were doing in corporate? What was that? How did you get from it to get into this role?
Speaker 3:I had held some pretty high positions VP positions, director level and occasionally higher and I decided that the only good thing about corporate America was the pay. The culture was horrible and everything else was as well. So I just walked out and started my own company. Fortunately, I had connections from those larger companies where I could reach out to others, and that's really how we started and the purpose of it was. I wanted to help the people and not just be in the daily grind of what corporate America was looking for.
Speaker 2:So what type of category were you in in your corporate job? Was it finance, was it widgets? Was it real estate? What were you doing there? And then how do you make the your corporate job? Was it finance, was it widgets? Was it real estate? What were you doing there? And then how do you make the jump to marketing? Just throw a dart, set a board and say, hey, I want to do marketing, or was your background in that?
Speaker 3:from your corporate side, Well, it was that from the corporate side as well, but I held positions of chief marketing officer for a billion dollar company. I was the VP of the fifth largest book and magazine publisher in the United States. So that was again on the marketing side and some others in the middle, and I was also on the sales side earlier in my career.
Speaker 2:So publishing companies, so like Bauer or Meredith or Time?
Speaker 3:Guideposts, which is a faith-based book and magazine. Publisher Gotcha.
Speaker 2:So you were doing the marketing on the corporate side, realizing, hey, you're getting that steady paycheck but you're not getting fulfilled. It's not fulfilling what you're trying to do with businesses that you work with here.
Speaker 3:Exactly. It's just you know when it's not fun and you've achieved that level, so there's a little bit of comfort factor built in. But if it's not fun, why keep doing it? And I enjoyed the work. I just didn't enjoy the environments that these various companies would put you in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I have a very similar story. I spent 20 years in corporate finance working for insurance companies like the equitable. I worked for an offshore annuity company. I held high you know VP, director level positions and I hated my job. Every day I would get up and it was like the dread of going into the corporate grind. I don't want to say the backstabbing part of it, but a lot of the petty politics that went on in the corporate world that you had to deal with just to make sure you were positioned right for whatever the next thing was going to be. It just got to be too much. But I didn't just I wasn't able to just walk away. I needed some divine intervention, like the real estate market crash, for me to go hey, you know, I got, I've got to get out of this, let me find something else to go into. And it worked out pretty well. And then that's how I got into my.
Speaker 2:I owned a media buying agency. I own one today. That's what we do under. That's one of this. Good Neighbor podcast is one of the things under that, you know umbrella of the ad agency. But yeah, I'm very similar. I just I would wake up in the morning. I'd go to bed at night just dreading that I knew I had to get up. And then when I would wake up in the morning, it was just like finding that motivation to get going. Knowing that somebody else was really gaining the fruit from my labor just gets very frustrating. It's a mental exhaustion that goes along with it oh, definitely.
Speaker 3:I was fortunate enough that I had learned early on not to spend at the level of my income. So when I wanted to go, it was just speaking to my wife and saying do you mind if we do this? Uh, so what? Because I'm just going to walk out. She goes okay, and yeah, I mean that's great.
Speaker 2:So so the focal point of your business and you know when you talked about mid-level and large companies and some of the stuff you do with them, as well as small businesses, if you had to put a percentage on it, I mean, what percentage of you know full stack marketing is working with large brands versus you know local for lack of a better term mom and pop entrepreneur types?
Speaker 3:Well, if I split the two companies up, because there's an operating division that works with small business, it's probably about 70% enterprise level and the other 30% is small business, the difference being it really comes down to what tools are available, what budgets do they have. But the strategies are scalable, so what we would do with the biggest of companies can be done with a small company as well?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so then, how many you've talked about multiple entities underneath your umbrella? How much from an imprint of staff do you have within the organizations?
Speaker 3:Okay, well, most of them are contractors, but that's because we chose to do it that way. Yeah, I get that.
Speaker 2:Total of 90. 90 people total as 1099s that are doing various roles within various organizations that you operate.
Speaker 3:Correct, 85 are our employees or, excuse me, five are employees, 85 or so are contractors.
Speaker 2:And then how do you make that Like, what determine? Is it a budget thing? Is it a size of the company that makes them enterprise versus that small business?
Speaker 3:Yeah, typically the enterprise level is doing 50 million or higher, so in some cases that would still be considered small business. But you know, if you're on the other side of the bank account it's not small business and you're talking about revenue, you're talking about their growth.
Speaker 2:Talking about their revenue, yes, and many of my clients are a billion or more okay, so um, and then, from a service standpoint, do you strictly focus in the vertical of the digital media? Or I mean, and what do you include under digital media? You, you include mobile, you include social I'm assuming it's the whole breadth of it or is it designing websites? And then do you do other stuff? Do you do other mediums like TV, radio, print, et cetera, other stuff that's out there?
Speaker 3:And so we if you take it and break it apart all of the digital media, obviously so SEM, which is search engine marketing. We do that with very large budgets. We have clients that spend a million plus a month. We're Google Premier partners. And then you look at the other things that we do within that arena is social marketing and influencer marketing. We run affiliate programs for people, programs for people, and then, when you sort of bring it down to the smaller side, a lot of what happens there is just you know what they can do with the avenues that are available to them versus the budget.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they can't run. You know the larger ad buys. It's just not going to work for them. So we just find a way to get them in front of as many people with the best marketing strategies that are possible, based on what they can afford, versus saying, oh, you have to do this, and if it puts a strain on your budget, oh well. And a lot of companies don't even want to work with the smaller businesses if they're at the level that my larger company is, because of that consideration that I can make a lot more money. On the other side, I like to help people.
Speaker 2:And you're dealing with two different I mean, you're dealing with two different animals, right? So, like your enterprise folks, you're probably dealing with a CMO or a marketing director or a VP of marketing under that umbrella, and when you get into your smaller businesses, you're probably dealing with a business owner or an office manager or someone on that level. So there is a level of education that goes on with those two different conversations, right? Like, the conversation you're having with the seasoned marketing person is slightly different than the person that you're talking to that's running a local business that you know doesn't have that exorbitant budget.
Speaker 3:Oh, absolutely, and I sort of define it when people ask why do you have both sides? In the larger company, I primarily work as a fractional chief marketing officer. My only line in the job description is to increase revenue. That's it. But when I look at this, Go ahead, Sorry. When I look at the smaller business, the impact of what I do. A small business, if they make poor business decisions, if they're not in the right places to be, it will have a much larger impact than a larger company. People could lose their livelihood, impact their families and a number of other things. If I make a million dollar mistake in some of these bigger clients, nobody's happy but nobody loses their job.
Speaker 2:Well, ok, so that brings me to. I have two great questions off of that and, finishing off on that, making like a million dollar mistake. Obviously that's not the goal, but one of the things I'm assuming you run into cause I know I've run into it for the past 15 years and you talk to a client that says, well, tell me what my ROI is going to be, can you guarantee my ROI on my marketing plan? How do you answer that question?
Speaker 3:I can have predictable ROI or ROAS return on ad spend, but predictable is not the same as guaranteed, and when I was born, the one thing they didn't ever give me was a crystal ball. So I have to use data and maybe occasionally go outside of that box a little bit, but the data doesn't lie. So you stay where it is for the majority of the campaigns that you run, because they're an own entity and they make money. And again, if you're paid to increase revenue, you do have to have a little bit of risk associated with some campaigns, but don't put your entire business in a high-risk category.
Speaker 2:So it's funny you say that because with you know, with what I do, when I get that question I try to explain to people that it's like doing algebra without the X and the Y, like you have to know the audience, you have to have to target the right audience, you have to have the right timing for certain types of verticals, but you have to have the right creative, you have to have the right call to action. There's a whole bunch of stuff that goes into components to building an ad and I always tell people I kind of make a joke of it I say, look, if someone's guaranteeing you an ROI it's kind of like the line from the movie Tommy Boy If you want me to put a piece of poop in a box and mark it guaranteed, I can do that. It's not going to really necessarily change it. We use data, we try to make smart decisions, we do A-B testing when that's an available option to kind of sort of mitigate some of the potential loss. But I loved hearing your answer for that because that is very on par with what I see day to day in what we do in our communities.
Speaker 2:So let me ask you another question. I guess this is kind of I don't want to say the million dollar question, but it is. The dollar question is, when someone comes into you cause you said you you worked as a fractional, you know CMO for these businesses Are they? Are you generally working on a contract? Is it like a three, six, nine month, 12 month contract to increase the revenue and then do you have generally a flat retainer fee? Or is there like like how, what's the structure of how you do your financials? And not to get into specific numbers, but like just kind of ballpark, how it works?
Speaker 3:okay. So the with the larger companies, uh, definitely contractual. Uh, and of course we separate my role from the other roles in the company, which would be the marketing technology, uh, you know, managing ad spends, etc. Et cetera. So in my case it's strategy and I'm not inexpensive, I admit it. But having said that, that's with the larger companies. With a smaller company, I honestly try to look at their budget and what they can do and try to be budget-friendly for them because, again, it's much more rewarding to help the small business succeed than to just send $100 to corporate America.
Speaker 3:I could do that every day.
Speaker 2:You know it's funny you say that. So one of the things I always tell this story when I'm talking to people. You know I have done ad spends for Welch's. Welch's Fruit Snacks was one of my large clients. That's why I said Bauer and Meredith. We did a lot of business with those publishing companies. Mechanics, wear Gloves we did a lot of business with.
Speaker 2:But my favorite client, I had an over the counter pharmaceutical company that had one sliver of shelf space for their blood coagulant and by the time they were bought out we had them in every CVS and every Walgreens across the United States and we just did it smart. I mean, we were working initially with like $2,000 a month budgets to kind of push it and place it wherever we needed to and then by the end they were spending $60,000, $70,000, $80,000 a month and they were not one of our biggest clients. So that story that's the most gratifying. So I guess my question to you with that is is it for you, the way it is for me, way more gratifying to go into a small company and watch them explode and grow, or having that one or two big giant clients that, yeah, you're in there, you're part of the solution, but you're really kind of like a piece in the cog. What's the more fulfilling thing for you as a business owner?
Speaker 3:Well, the more fulfilling one is a smaller business because, again, the impact is more direct. Well, the more fulfilling one is the smaller business because, again, the impact is more direct. And in the bigger companies that I work with and bigger clients, the only thing I have to look at is revenue production. I don't even have to necessarily look at expenses other than within the marketing department. But that's all I do. I maximize revenues and profitability, but that's all I do. I maximize revenues and profitability. When we look at the smaller company, I really help them identify things even outside of marketing that can benefit them and say you know, you've got to make the right decisions.
Speaker 2:Well, that I mean, that's a great point. That's one of the things I run into a lot is, especially with the small businesses. Because he's using an example of like an air conditioning company locally here in Tampa. Because he's using an example of an air conditioning company locally here in Tampa he's the owner-operator, he handles operations, human resources, billing, marketing. He's wearing six different hats just to manage the day-to-day and then trying to explain to that individual hey look, if you want to scale your business, you're going to have to delegate. Let us help you by delegating this component so that you could focus a little more on X, y and Z.
Speaker 2:And sometimes the hardest part is getting a small business owner who's watching every penny understand. You know you can use resources and delegate and still have the control in your business to help it grow. And that's got to. You know that's got to be what you're running into with the people that are hiring you as a consultant, because you know they're. They're in that kind of that same boat Like I don't know what to do. I'm going in so many different directions, I don't know what to do. I need someone to kind of pull me in.
Speaker 3:What I see is and you sort of touched on this If you look at the air conditioning company, obviously they're experts in that area, but they may not even have enough knowledge to make the right decisions. So part of what we do in the smaller company is educational. Ideally, you know, we don't want to have to be married to them. We want to teach them how to do some of the things that we do so that they can make decisions without having to ask somebody every time they learn what to look for.
Speaker 3:They learn how to make decisions based on that.
Speaker 2:You know it's funny is a funny story from my ad agency. When I was in Atlanta. We we hook up with these doctors or four gynecologists in New England. They developed the drug. It was an over the counter drug. They developed it like it was over the counter but you had to kind of go into their office to get it.
Speaker 2:So we're talking to them, we kind of go over you know, audience, budget, timing, kind of the essential stuff to figure out what they want to do. They tell us our audience is women, timing, it's open, et cetera. So we put together some plans for them around little stuff like Delilah, like certain radio shows that are going to hit that older female, et cetera, a couple of publications that would reach them, like Marie Claire, some stuff like that. And these guys came back Now they're doctors, clearly they're highly educated, clearly they've got advanced degrees that I do not have.
Speaker 2:And when we came back and presented all this stuff and they said, well, where is whatever the station was, where is Boston Sports Radio, wfan, whatever it was? And we said, well, we didn't include that in your, in your media mix, you know, they said, well, we want to be on that channel. So we're like trying to have that education and say, listen, I understand you're a doctor, you got a PhD and you developed this drug and all that stuff, but that audience is primarily male 18 to 54. It doesn't quite hit your target audience. And we fought back and forth, fighting the good fight, and finally they said they just wanted to hear themselves on the radio. So when you talk about not really knowing how to be a marketer, it translates across the board for no matter how educated you are. Understanding and being an expert at this definitely makes a difference.
Speaker 3:I have a lot of fun because I use one example. I said if you're in the Bible publishing business, you probably don't want to have a target audience of atheists. You're not going to sell it. You're not going to sell it.
Speaker 2:It's going to be tough. It's going to be tough to make that sale. You might find that one diamond in the rough, but it's going to be tough. So one of the things I like to ask people is and you've dealt with so many different businesses is this? You've dealt with so many different businesses. Is this really? I usually ask about myths or misconceptions in your business, but because you cover such a broad scope of things, there could be a thousand myths and misconceptions. So I really just want to go to and find out. One of the big things I like to ask is for entrepreneurs out there. We've all been in that, that moment where, like we're going through something or we're struggling and we're not quite sure how do we get past it, how do we, you know, overcome it? So tell us a little bit about a hardship that you might've run into or an obstacle in your career or personally, and how you overcame it and how you've, you know, kind of come through to the point where you're at right now.
Speaker 3:Well, it's pretty simple. In July of 2020, when the pandemic first started and nobody knew anything about it I had one of the more severe cases of COVID that existed. That was still survivable, and in my case, it wasn't even supposed to be survivable. So my business, my large business, went to zero because I couldn't do anything. I was literally hospitalized for four months and all sorts of other things. I had to learn how to walk again. So it's uh pretty depressing, if if nothing else, as you go from one side to the other.
Speaker 3:What I came out from with that is that don't focus on the things that you can't control.
Speaker 3:Don't focus on the things that, no matter what happened in your business, if you can't do that anymore, then you just can't do it right.
Speaker 3:You have to learn how to reinvent, how you need to create a new model, and I really had to, because I went from probably working 70 or 80 hours a week to being told that you know, if I work 20, that's going to be the best I can do and, in all honesty, it was so, as I learned how to take that impact and do something with it. That really trickled over into the family, it trickled over into the business and you find out what's important and in most cases sort of strange to say this when you're in business, money's not the most important thing. It's obviously up there. But if you make it the only thing, everything else pays for it. And I was guilty of that. I mean, I grew my business tremendously at the expense of pretty much everything else. After I got COVID pretty rough lesson to learn, but I now, when I came back into the company, I was able to work again. Much different attitude, much different.
Speaker 2:And how long did it take you to come back? So that was July of 2020. You were, I mean, you said four months, but like how long till you felt back? Is it like the spring of 21?
Speaker 3:No, I finally completed all my therapy so that I could walk again in November. I didn't work for another year. I didn't come back until January 22. I didn't have the energy.
Speaker 2:I just couldn't do it. Yeah, well, that's what I was going to ask. I mean, you seem very energetic now, you seem kind of like with it, but everything I hear from everybody is, you know, that just beats you up so bad that you just don't have the stamina whether it's breath or activity or whatever to do anything for a while. So it was a whole other year after you were done with therapy, so the end of 2020, early 2022.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I have 30% permanent lung damage. I have a cyst on my lung that has to be surgically removed, caused by COVID. This last December, covid itself and what was going to the lungs triggered a heart issue. So, oh, it's a gift that keeps on giving to steal somebody's tagline. But if you face the things that aren't what you want, then you might as well just give up, and I have never been somebody that wanted to give up, so I find a way to make it work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I think the one thing for me again that we have very similar trajectories. I mean, I moved to Tampa in 2019. My brother had died the following year, in July of 2020, when you got COVID. My mom passed away. My dad recently passed away in the last year, so I've lost three family members in a 36-month window, and what it has taught me, at soon to be 52, is nothing is guaranteed. Life is too short. Enjoying the things you enjoy as much as you can enjoy them, while still maintaining the lifestyle and the work that you need to do to maintain that lifestyle. But, yeah, making the things you enjoy a priority is a good message for people to. You know, take away. So, with that said, I mean, what are the things you enjoy? What do you do for fun? I mean, you know, do you and your wife like to go skydiving? I mean, you don't have the lung capacity, so maybe skydiving isn't it, but what do you guys like to do when you're not, when you're not doing some marketing?
Speaker 3:So I'll give you an edit. I'll do the before and after. So I was a professional pilot at one point in my career. So I love flying. Can't do that anymore. I was a scuba instructor an Maui scuba instructor. Obviously my lungs can't do that anymore. I was a long-distance motorcycle rider and I participated in competitive rallies Can't do that, what do you ride?
Speaker 2:Or what did you ride?
Speaker 3:I had a BMW 1200 RT, I had a Goldwing, I had a Honda VTX. You know, I just whatever the type of riding I needed to do.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:But you know, because part of the issue that I came out of COVID with was it's not vertigo, but it's the same symptoms. I have a brain-'s not vertigo, but it's the same symptoms. I have a brain induced vertigo.
Speaker 2:So I don't want to be on two wheels. That's just, I get it.
Speaker 3:So now, what can I do? I can still go to the beach, I can still play, even though I can't swim a lot. I do a lot of photography and you know, and I enjoy that mostly landscape and travel and such but I'll do that, not photography. When I was very, very young, I became very adept at playing pool and I won't go into how I paid for some of my education, but let's just say it was more on the side of hooking somebody in, but I still enjoy doing that. The only challenge I have with that one is that 50 years ago I could see a speck on the ball at the other end of the table.
Speaker 3:Now, I can't see the other end of the table.
Speaker 2:Hey, listen, you got to do like Paul Newman in Color of Money. You got to go get those good glasses and come make your comeback. Oh yeah, it's enjoyable.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's just doing again, instead of fighting what I can't do, it's just finding things that I can still do and do them and not be frustrated because I can't do it at the same level I could do before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, wow. So just to take a second to point out and we're sponsored. This episode is sponsored by Christy Thurber Realty. She's with Champions, remax Champions, out in Trinity, odessa in that area. If you want to get a hold of Christy, her number is 904-271-1950. She's a big, big fan of the show and we appreciate her sponsorship. As we start to wind this up, I wanted to just ask you what is the the one thing? If a business owner is listening to this and a if they're kind of in that rut trying to figure out, like listening to another entrepreneur like you, what would be a tip you could give them? And if someone's out there, what would be the one thing you would say differentiates working with your firm versus anybody else that's out there?
Speaker 3:The first part for any entrepreneurs realize that if it was that easy, everybody would do it. So there are challenges that you have to be willing to face, and when you're starting out, especially when you're small, you look in the mirror at the person responsible for everything, as you pointed out at some point you do need to delegate.
Speaker 3:I think what differentiates us is really two different things.
Speaker 3:One is that we as a company have a tremendous amount of experience managing very, very large clients, so we're able to scale that down. The other part, which is more to me maybe specifically, is that I want to really determine if I can help you and if I can't then I say no. Really determine if I can help you and if I can't, then I say no, because at this point in my life and in my career and in the business, I don't need to do it for the money. I need to do it because I'm able to help somebody else grow, get their business better, I think, and sometimes because I don't have the pressure of the financials. That makes us maybe sometimes a better alternative, because we're going to tell you the truth and we're not going to sugarcoat it. Well, maybe other people will be worried about. Well, if I say this to them, they won't hire me or they'll get rid of me. I think the business owner needs to know what the truth is, not what they want to hear.
Speaker 2:I mean that is a big component to it and, like I said, part of it is the education side of it with small business. The education side of it with small business, part of it is really getting them to understand like everybody's goal in this is success. Everybody wants to have a successful plan. No one goes into a working arrangement with somebody saying, hey, I hope this doesn't work. It's hey, we're both traveling the same road together with the same goal in mind. How do we get there and coordinate it and make it work for you?
Speaker 2:And you know the analogy I always use I mean I love this one because I deal with a lot of real estate agents is if you're going to list somebody's home they think it's worth $750,000, but it's really only worth about $500,000.
Speaker 2:You need to throw a little bit of an ice bucket on that person and say, look, I know you love your home and you think it's worth this. It's really going to sell somewhere in this sweet spot. You might lose that listing, but the person who does get it at $750 is going to beat their head against the wall trying to make it work and eventually it's going to come down to what the market will bear anyway. So those are hard conversations that people need to have, in that case with a home seller, in our case, with a business owner or chief marketing officer who's trying to understand the value proposition of bringing in a pro like you to their business. So, mike, the big question is, if I am a business owner, if I'm a CMO, if I'm a chief marketing officer, marketing director, vp of marketing, and I need you to come into my business director, vp of marketing, and I need you to come into my business.
Speaker 3:How do I get ahold of you? Well, there's obviously by email, which is info at digital that deliverscom, which people say why did you come up with that domain name? Is because, rather than naming the customer, I named what we do versus the other side. Maybe I learned that in marketing. You can I mean I can be followed all over the place.
Speaker 3:I just you know I have a pretty well known in the marketing arena, but you know the info address because I'm somewhat a little bit busy at times and with the health issues I have to behave myself more than I really choose to, and I'm always willing to talk to somebody to really see if we can help them. We can find a tool that they can afford, we can find strategies that they can budget effectively. But if it's just if they're at the point where the help that they need is in marketing or it's not in financials or it's not in some other area, then we will tell them. In some cases I help them find somebody who's a better fit, because I think that's part of what I can do. I'm not very threatening at all because I work because I want to, not because I have to, so that makes it a little bit. There's no pressure. I say you're in a no-pressure zone when you reach out to me, because if I can't help you, I don't want to take your money.
Speaker 2:So, folks, if you're listening to this, you can click on the QR code. If you're watching it, you can click on the QR code on the screen. That will take you to Mike's contact information. If you want to go send him an email, it's info at digitalworkscom. Digital that delivers. That delivers. Sorry, my apologies, digital that deliverscom. If you want to give him a call directly, it's 813-524-7272. Mike, thank you so much for being on with us and giving us a little bit of insight into what you do If business owners reach out to Mike. Listen, he doesn't need the money, so negotiate his fee, negotiate his retainer with him and I'm sure he'll help you out to help your business get started and whatever you're looking to do to get to the next level or get off the ground. Mike, thanks for being a good neighbor. Thanks for being on the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Speaker 3:I appreciate it and thanks to your sponsor for doing this. Makes it better for everybody Much appreciated.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast, pasco. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPPascocom. Featured on the show. Go to gnppascocom. That's gnppascocom. Or call 813-922-3610.